Okay, so Younes was killed. Jalil said that, although he was in the hands of rebels and being taken for questioning, he was killed by Qaddafi loyalists. Right. Then it was admitted that he was killed by wicked Islamist rebels. Then the al-Nidaa Brigade was overrun and captured by fellow rebels because they were fifth columnists for Qaddafi. Somehow, western media reports claim that al-Nidaa is an Islamist organization, which makes little sense since Islamists (especially the LIFG) HATE Qaddafi, and for good reason. Blah, blah, blah.
You decide.
The nature of the civil war in Libya has been persistently underplayed by foreign governments and media alike. The enthusiasm in some 30 foreign capitals to recognize the mysterious self-appointed group in Benghazi as the leaders of Libya is at this stage probably motivated primarily by expectations of commercial concessions and a carve-up of oilfields.
These were the understandable motives which led Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy and so many others to kow-tow humiliatingly to Gaddafi prior to the uprising, and to treat his bizarre personality cult with respect. A foreign no-fly zone and limited no-drive zone to defend Benghazi against Gaddafi's tanks could be justified in the early stage of the war, but this rapidly changed into a dubious decision to overthrow Gaddafi, relying on NATO air power and a few thousand rebel militiamen. The supposition was that Gaddafi would go down quickly, and when this did not happen it became a question of throwing good money after bad in the hope that his forces would cave in.
It has not happened yet and, with Ramadan beginning tomorrow, it is unlikely that fasting militiamen will be able to fight their way to Tripoli. Worse, the rebels' only strong card is NATO air power, so any cessation of the war in order to open the way for negotiations is against their interests.
counterpunch
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