Does anyone know the make-up of Khaddafi's armed forces?

[ellenrr]

ie - are they drafted, do they volunteer?
are they, like in Egpyt, recruited from the poorer classes?

Listening to Al-Jazeera report of a US strike on a Khaddafi armed force base, and hearing how the tanks were cut in half by the force of the blast, and "no one could survive this"-
I cannot take any joy in those killed - even if soldiers, perhaps they are unwilling soldiers.

[SoCalDem]

1. Maybelline?

:spank:

sorry I could not help myself

[dipsydoodle]

3. lol

I was tempted to say Avon.

You also used a classic oddity. That name means make up to you whereas to me it means Chuck Berry. :)

[dipsydoodle]

2. I have a feeling

its a job : just a job.

I also don't believe that his only support is from the armed forces.

[Catherina]

6. I don't either. If his only support was from the armed forces

and most of the armed forces defected to the rebels, this would have been over already.

[ellenrr]

7. are you saying that most of his armed forces HAS defected?

and who do you think is his support -
business elite?
who else

[Catherina]

9. I'm not, the rebels are. It's hard to know what the truth is anymore.

Both sides are in a propaganda war and both have already been caught exaggerating things more than once.

I personally think a significant portion of the army has gone over to the rebels side but not the paramilitary forces.

Who else is his support? Probably most who remember what Libya was like before Gaddafi "tapped Libya’s new wealth to provide schools, hospitals and other benefits for Libya’s desperately poor, semi-nomadic population" and the people in the West who don't want the islamic fundamentalism of Benghazi, where they closed down the public cinemas, sports leagues and youth activities organized outside the auspices of mosques, to spread.

According to this http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Libyan-Rebels-Share-A-Desire-To-Overthrow-Colonel-Gaddafi-But-They-Are-By-No-Means-A-United-Force/Article/201103315957078">Sky News article "the second biggest supply of foreign fighters (to Iraq) were from Libya".

My impression, after following this like a hawk from the beginning, is that the mosques in Benghazi had been whipping the younger men up for Jihad against injustice, against Western aggression in Muslim lands and, as Sabrina pointed out to me, against secular leaders like Gaddafi who they consider traitors to Islam.

The mosques in the rest of Libya weren't doing that for years which is why I think the youth of Tripoli didn't rush out to join the rebels.

That's a long way of telling you I think his support is more than the business elite. Most people probably wouldn't mind a change but not like this. If anything, the number of people supporting Gaddafi is going to grow now. We'll start finding out what the real numbers are if someone is suicidal enough to send ground troops in.


Watch this video too. It's important: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-o9IlpMHhs The first protest was an understandably angry protest against corruption and incompetence in government housing schemes for poor families. Here's the article that goes with it: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/4032/World/Region/Libya-protest-over-housing-enters-its-third-day.aspx

Libya protest over housing enters its third day
Frustrations over corruption and incompetence in government housing schemes for poor families spills over into protests across the country
Mohamed Abdel-Baky, Sunday 16 Jan 2011


An image published by Qaraina news website for vacant houses in Libya

...

The Libyan government has run subsided housing projects for poor families in several cities for years. However local authorities in some projects postponed the delivery of hundreds of housing units to the owners who have already signed contracts and paid most of the installments.

A statement released by the National Front for Salvation of Libya, an opposition movement established in 1981, described the frustration of the protesters in Bani Walid: “Bani Walid has no basic services; thousands of people are without houses and the local authority is corrupted, it only delivers services with bribes. Nothing will make Bani Walid calm but freedom, justice and transparency.”

Witnesses said that hundreds of policemen were observing the protests but did not intervene, even when hundreds of people broke in to some buildings under construction.

...

Al Jazeera TV network reported that police have been instructed by the government to avoid any clashes with protesters and to only protect government buildings and contain the protesters' anger

...

Read the whole thing.

[Catherina]

4. It's complicated. Conscription at 17yrs for 18 mos. After that volunteers

Volunteers sign on for 5 year terms at a time. 50% of the Army is young conscripts.

Army, Air Defence, Navy and Paramilitary forces

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Libya

[ellenrr]

5. thanks, it's nice that one can occasionally get an intelligent answer

do you guys really think you're FUNNY?

[Catherina]

8. About the Paramilitary Forces

Pan-African Legion
In about 1980, Muammar Gaddafi introduced the Islamic Pan-African Legion, a body of mercenaries recruited primarily among dissidents from Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Mali, and Chad. West African states with Muslim populations have also been the source of some personnel. Believed to consist of about 7,000 individuals, the force has received training from experienced Palestinian and Syrian instructors. Some of those recruited to the legion were said to have been forcibly impressed from among nationals of neighboring countries who migrated to Libya in search of work. (citation needed)

According to the Military Balance published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the force was organized into one armored, one infantry, and one paratroop/commando brigade. It has been supplied with T-54 and T-55 tanks, armored personnel carriers, and EE-9 armored cars. The Islamic Pan-African Legion was reported to have been committed during the fighting in Chad in 1980 and was praised by Gaddafi for its success there. However, it was believed that many of the troops who fled the Chadian attacks of March 1987 were members of the Legion.<14>

Islamic Arab Legion
In an effort to realize Gaddafi's vision of a united Arab military force, plans for the creation of an Islamic Arab Legion have been announced from time to time. The goal, according to the Libyan press, would be to assemble an army of one million men and women fighters to prepare for the great Arab battle – “the battle of liberating Palestine, of toppling the reactionary regimes, of annihilating the borders, gates, and barriers between the countries of the Arab homeland, and of creating the single Arab Jamahiriya from the ocean to the gulf”. In March 1985, it was announced that the National Command of the Revolutionary Forces Command in the Arab Nation had been formed with Qadhafi at its head. A number of smaller radical Arab groups from Lebanon, Tunisia, Sudan, Iraq, the Persian Gulf states, and Jordan were represented at the inaugural meeting. Syrian Baath Party and radical Palestinian factions were also present. Each of these movements was expected to earmark 10 percent of its forces for service under the new command. As of April 1987, there was no information confirming the existence of such a militia.<14>

People’s Militia
The mission of the 45,000 People's Militia was territorial defence, and it was to function under the leadership of local military commanders. Qadhafi contended that it was the People's Militia that met the Egyptian incursions during the border clash of 1977, although the Egyptians insisted that their successful raids had been contested by regular army units. The militia forces are not known to have faced any other test that would permit an appraisal of their performance in home defence or as auxiliaries to the regular army. There was some evidence that local commanders had not responded energetically to their responsibility for training and supervising militia units. Militia units reportedly were generously equipped with arms, transport, and uniforms. In November 1985, it was announced that the first contingent of "armed people" trained as paratroopers had made a demonstration drop.<15>
The information above about the People's Militia is of about 1987; it is not clear whether the force still exists in 2011.

[Historic NY]

10. Think crime family....it works the same in exchange for loyality they get a check

[Taitertots]

11. Exactly like the US military

See how long our military stays loyal if we were not paying our murderers significantly more than they do.