New York Times,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/africa/20tripoli.html?hp.These are extraordinary times. I am posting it all because of its importance, knowing the rules. You can judge it for yourself. I am pretty close to making up my mind here, and it doesn't involve women and children as shields for Qaddafi. One editorial note from me.
TRIPOLI, Libya — Even as the Allied intervention began, a group of foreign journalists were bused on a rare visit inside Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s compound — a labyrinth of concrete barracks, fortified walls and barbed wire designed to deter potential military coups.
There, hundreds of supporters offered themselves up as human shields, cheering to newly minted dance songs about their adoration for their leader. “House by house, ally by ally,” the catchiest song went, quoting a Qaddafi speech. “Disinfect the germs from each house and each room.”
Mostly women and children, some said they were the families of soldiers in Colonel Qaddafi’s forces. They said they had come to protect Colonel Qaddafi’s compound from bombing by volunteering to be shields. “If they want to hit Muammar Qaddafi, they must hit us because we are all Muammar Qaddafi,” said Ghazad Muftah, a 52-year-old widow of a soldier from the Warfalla tribe, who said she was there with her six grown children.
In Tajoura — a neighborhood near the capital that has been a hotbed of anti-Qaddafi unrest — one resident had complained earlier in the day that despite the announced no-fly zone, Libyan Air Force jets could be heard taking off from the nearby bases, presumably headed toward the eastern front with the rebels.
“Our suffering is greater than anyone can imagine,” he said. “Anyone who dares go outside is either arrested or shot dead.
“Food is decreasing, there is no tap water, and electricity comes and goes,” he added. “The hospitals cannot really offer much treatment anymore because there are no medicines. Now we resort to traditional and old methods to treat the injured and the people who fall ill. There is no milk for the children.”
It was unclear Saturday night whether the missile strikes had hit the air base, but in the rebel held city of Misrata — the last major rebel holdout in the west — one person said residents were cheering the sound of airstrikes. The Qaddafi forces had continued their siege Saturday, including the cutoff of water and electrical power, he said, and Qaddafi gunmen continued to fire into the city.
“The airstrikes sound good to the Libyan people,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals against his family.
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