Libya: Cameron and Sarkozy mobbed in Benghazi

[jannyk]

Source: BBC

Thousands of Libyans have turned out to cheer UK Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the eastern city of Benghazi. "It is great to be in free Libya," Mr Cameron said. "Col Gaddafi said he would hunt you down like rats, but you showed the courage of lions."

Mr Sarkozy plunged into the crowd, reaching across his bodyguards to shake the hands of waiting Libyans, many of them waving French flags. This is the first visit to Libya by Western leaders since ex-leader Col Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown last month.

NTC chief Mustafa Abdul Jalil thanked them for taking "brave positions" during the Libyan uprising. "They showed us political, economic and military support which helped the rebels establish a state, and we thank France and the UK for that," he said.

The two leaders are hugely popular in Libya, where common graffiti slogans include: "Merci Sarkozy!" and "Thank you Britain!"

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14934352

[harmonicon]

1. Frightening.

This really does honestly give me the creeps.


freedom fries....

[killbotfactory]

7. It's surprising, indeed.

Turns out when you help a group of folks liberate themselves from a violently oppressive government headed by a ruthless thug who lives like a king at their expense, the freed people appreciate the help.

Weird, right?

I thought they were all Al-Qaeda fundamentalisterrorjihadi's who hate the west.

[harmonicon]

15. Some of them are what we've called "Al Qaeda" in the past....

but a lot of them are other sorts of low-lifes, like royalists and racists..... or have you not heard about the mass graves of black people killed by these "rebels"?

That's what the governments of those countries and ours have given aid to.

[joshcryer]

16. I saw a report of 13 mass graves discovered but none with black people.

Do you have a citation for that? Thanks.

[joshcryer]

13. What an insult to geniunely appreciative people.

This is not a fake photo op, they were mobbed and didn't expect it. They were in Tripoli earlier in the day and had no public appearance, for security reasons. I think both of them would've preferred to hide from public view but the Benghazi New Libyans did not allow it.

[al bupp]

2. Bush & Cheney could only dream of such a reception in Baghdad

Meanwhile, Libyan on the whole appear to genuinely appreciate the "interference" from the UK & France in their "sovereign" nation.

[EFerrari]

3. Tony Blair was "mobbed" in Basra, too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/2946602.stm

[pampango]

4. The only pictures I saw there were of Blair visiting Iraqi school children and British troops.

Was there a welcoming "mob" somewhere?

[EFerrari]

11. The point is, the BBC

likes to highlight some parts of Britain's imperial adventures over others.

[joshcryer]

12. No, I remember Blair's visit, it was a very orcastrated photo op.

This however is completely different, everywhere they went they were mobbed, they didn't expect it or they likely would've gone a different route with more privacy in order to avoid a potential threat. They did that in Tripoli, didn't show their faces in public, though the response would've been similar.

[Fool Count]

21. Bwa-ha-ha... Sure they didn't expect it and didn't want it.

That's not at all what they came to Tripoli for. They just had some urgent business which
couldn't be handled over the phone, that's all. A good one.

[joshcryer]

23. They both look scared out of their minds, Sarkozy especially, extremely nervous.

It's clear they have an islamaphobic slant, particularly as how the UK and France have been fighting their own islamaphobic battles. I would bet money that they would have preferred a more controlled situation like in Tripoli and I've said it repeatedly in this thread.

[Fool Count]

25. Scared look is like a trademark of those two bozos.

"Islamophobic slant" my ass. That's an incompetent-cowardice-over-smug-arrogance slant more than anything.

[joshcryer]

10. Indeed, the gatherings at Martyr Square every day are overwhelming, thousands of people...

...without prompting from an official hiding in a hole somewhere.

[daleo]

5. Let's see Cameron go for an un-escorted walk in Tripoli

Or parts of London, for that matter.

[Prometheus Bound]

18. The Tripoli photo-op was apparantly in a cordoned off military airport.

[daleo]

19. I figured something like that

Leading politicians don't walk around their own capitals without substantial armed escort anymore. How much less likely that they would do so in a foreign country during a civil war.

A photo-op is carefully managed so we shouldn't take them as expressions of popular opinion. The photo-op of Saddam's statue being pulled down was a prime example. The real war Iraq had barely begun.

[Swede]

6. K&R

People in Libya recognize things that outsiders don't,it appears.

[jannyk]

8. Yep, they 'get' it.

[joshcryer]

9. People in Libya have lifted off the veil of oppression, they are extremely grateful for outside help

[joshcryer]

14. What's going to be awesome is when Obama retires and visits Libya.

I don't see him visiting in his second term but if he did that would be even more amazing.

[tomg]

17. The interesting thing in Libya,

At least to me, is what the economic game plan is going to be for the new government. How much of the country's economic and natural resources are going to have to be "privatized" and sold off to foreign corporations. What will be the deal that the new government will have to make with the IMF, for example, in order to get loans for infrastructure repaired and development? Will the new government be responsible for major debt incurred by the previous regime of Gaddafi, and if so under what terms.

Of real interest, to me, is the fate of the GMMRP ( the Great Man Made River Project) and the beginning of the coming water crisis. I have a feeling that, having wrested political control of their country away from one tyrant, they could very well watch and have it sold out economically to different economic tyranny.

[Fool Count]

20. What ridiculous farce. I'd rather remain oppressed than owe

my "liberation" to this pathetic pair of clowns.

[joshcryer]

22. They owe nothing.

But they're unlikely to make new contracts with countries who threw them under the bus.

[Fool Count]

24. If they truly care about their country, they will make contracts which are

most beneficial to it. Doing anything else will betray their true nature and the true
purpose of this war.

[joshcryer]

26. Indeed, which is why they are not renegotiating the rather favorable oil contracts.

And why those saying that they would were not being very thoughtful.

[No Elephants]

27. If only I knew the inner thoughts and feelings of world leaders and rebels.