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Libya struggling to contain militias

The country that witnessed the Arab world’s most sweeping revolution is foundering. So is its capital, where a semblance of normality has returned after the chaotic days of the fall of Tripoli last August. But no one would consider a city ordinary where militiamen tortured to death an urbane former diplomat two weeks ago, where hundreds of refugees deemed loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi waited hopelessly in a camp and where a government official acknowledged that “freedom is a problem.” Much about the scene on Wednesday was lamentable, perhaps because the discord was so commonplace…

The militias are proving to be the scourge of the revolution’s aftermath. Though they have dismantled most of their checkpoints in the capital, they remain a force, here and elsewhere. A Human Rights Watch researcher estimated there are 250 separate militias in the coastal city of Misurata, the scene of perhaps the fiercest battle of the revolution. In recent months those militias have become the most loathed in the country.

Residents say some of the fighters have sought to preserve law and order in the midst of government helplessness. Militias from Benghazi and Zintan are trying to protect a refugee camp of 1,500 people driven from their homes in Tawergha by fighters from Misurata, who bitterly blamed them for aiding Colonel Qaddafi’s assault on their town. Since the Tawerghans arrived in the camp, which once housed Turkish construction workers in Tripoli, Misurata militiamen have staged raids five or six times there despite the presence of the other militias, detaining dozens, many of them still in custody.

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Has Libya tried leading from behind to control the militias?

Flange on February 9, 2012 at 9:19 AM

In recent months those militias have become the most loathed in the country.

Libyans want Gaddafi back!! They’re just whiners who love dictators!

Reality loves Gaddafi and wants to have steamy sex with him!!

/Terp Mole

mankai on February 9, 2012 at 9:20 AM

Somalia 2. Great job, Obama.

Doomberg on February 9, 2012 at 9:27 AM

So where is the Congressional investigation into the Obama Libyan War fiasco?

albill on February 9, 2012 at 9:28 AM

Libya is a tribal/clan “country.” You can either have a strongman dictator or just let it devolve into tribal fiefdoms. Just don’t expect it to be a western democratic nation state. Same with Syria.

rbj on February 9, 2012 at 9:28 AM

PBHO: “Send in the U.S. Marines!”

Liberal former war protester: “Yeah, we’re cool with that.”

Bishop on February 9, 2012 at 9:29 AM

Libya is a tribal/clan “country.” You can either have a strongman dictator or just let it devolve into tribal fiefdoms. Just don’t expect it to be a western democratic nation state. Same with Syria.

rbj on February 9, 2012 at 9:28 AM

In all honesty, I guess Somalia 2 is a better result than a total al-Qaida takeover. I think though we’re going to have to start worrying about raids and piracy again if this trend continues for the same reason Somalia has become a den of crime and piracy.

Doomberg on February 9, 2012 at 9:34 AM

Obama has a way of getting rid of dictators without a single American troop on the ground. He proved that with Libya

liberal4life on February 9, 2012 at 12:03 AM

Chuck Schick on February 9, 2012 at 9:43 AM

Why worry about Libya, NATO and the mighty EU can take care of the problem.

LincolntheHun on February 9, 2012 at 9:56 AM

Nice to see the New York Slimes parroting Moscow (again).

Meanwhile, in un-liberated Syria;

Moscow does not consider the U.S-backed Friends of Syria Group legitimate, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.

On Sunday, the next day after Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution on Syria pushing for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed setting up a group that would “work with the friends of a democratic Syria around the world to support the opposition’s peaceful, political plans for change.”

Let’s have a show of hands… how many Libyans would prefer to move to Homs?

Massacre in Syria: “I saw bodies of women and children lying on roads beheaded”

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 10:10 AM

Libya Struggles to Curb Militias

What in the Hell is that title supposed to mean?

Libya is not strugglin” against militias. Right now, Libya IS militias. All of them are fighting each other, but there is no reason to call whichever one happens to be on top of the heap at any particular moment “Libya.”

It could take years for anything like a government to win out. And when it does, its dictator will probably make Kadaffy look like a tower of mental health.

logis on February 9, 2012 at 10:21 AM

Our Libyan-Contras’ Mussolini moment is a LONG overdue triumph for the Reagan Doctrine.

Post-Bush/Blair, it took EU conservatives (Cameron, Sarkozy, Berlusconi, Merkel) to successfully revive the Reagan Doctrine by arming and supporting Libyan-Contras.

American conservatives should focus on congratulating our heroic NATO airmen (and our new Libyan allies) for a job well done– and ignore the predictably impotent handwringing of the nattering naybobs of negativity.

“He counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong.”

God bless Ronald Reagan and our heroic NATO airmen.

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 10:23 AM

eggs… omelettes

Loss of American life: 0
Cost: ~$1B
Benefit: ~$8B siezed

Kaddafi spiderholed: PRICELESS

Meanwhilest;

ConocoPhillips booked an oil tanker to haul Libyan crude to the U.S. as the North African country boosts output following the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi last year, data from shipbrokers including Poten & Partners show.

The Donat, a 1 million-barrel carrier owned by Zadar, Croatia-based Tankerska Plovidba DD, was hired to load 135,000 metric tons of crude on Jan. 31 and sail to the U.S. Gulf Coast, data from New York-based Poten show.

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 10:29 AM

eggs… omelettes

Loss of American life: 0
Cost: ~$1B
Benefit: ~$8B siezed

Kaddafi spiderholed: PRICELESS

Meanwhilest;

ConocoPhillips booked an oil tanker to haul Libyan crude to the U.S. as the North African country boosts output following the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi last year, data from shipbrokers including Poten & Partners show.

The Donat, a 1 million-barrel carrier owned by Zadar, Croatia-based Tankerska Plovidba DD, was hired to load 135,000 metric tons of crude on Jan. 31 and sail to the U.S. Gulf Coast, data from New York-based Poten show.

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 10:31 AM

Let’s have a show of hands… how many Libyans would prefer to move to Homs?

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 10:10 AM

This guy might.

Some of these guys might.

Rebar on February 9, 2012 at 10:46 AM

Rebar cites: Medicins San Frontieres

pffl… MSF is notorious for engaging in political propaganda against democratic governments.

Meanwhile, in an alternate universe, the Greatest Generation backbites General Patton’s men for posing alongside Marxist-terrorists lynching Mussolini.

eggs… omelettes

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 11:09 AM

eggs… omelettes

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 11:09 AM

The omelette your “Libyan Contras” are making, has a decidedly al qaeda flavor.

Rebar on February 9, 2012 at 11:14 AM

Meanwhile, in an alternate universe, the Greatest Generation backbites General Patton’s men for posing alongside Marxist-terrorists lynching Mussolini.

eggs… omelettes

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 11:09 AM

Stop this BS.

Answer my question (my 458th request of you)… if one was concerned about the Communist governments popping up in Eastern Europe after WWII, did that make him a Nazi-coddling, Hit-ler-lover?

It was only in the final days of the war and during his tenure as military governor of Germany — after he had gotten to know both the Germans and America’s “gallant Soviet allies” — that Patton’s understanding of the true situation grew and his opinions changed. In his diary and in many letters to his family, friends, various military colleagues, and government officials, he expressed his new understanding and his apprehensions for the future. His diary and his letters were published in 1974 by the Houghton Mifflin Company under the title The Patton Papers.

Several months before the end of the war, General Patton had recognized the fearful danger to the West posed by the Soviet Union, and he had disagreed bitterly with the orders which he had been given to hold back his army and wait for the Red Army to occupy vast stretches of German, Czech, Rumanian, Hungarian, and Yugoslav territory, which the Americans could have easily taken instead.

On May 7, 1945, just before the German capitulation, Patton had a conference in Austria with U.S. Secretary of War Robert Patterson. Patton was gravely concerned over the Soviet failure to respect the demarcation lines separating the Soviet and American occupation zones. He was also alarmed by plans in Washington for the immediate partial demobilization of the U.S. Army.

Patton said to Patterson: “Let’s keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to the Red Army. This is the only language they understand and respect.”

Patton whined:” The Soviets are just as bad as the Nazis, boo hoo!”

Patton loved Hitler and wanted to have his children! He hated freedom!

ooga-booga!

/Terp Mole’s analysis

mankai on February 9, 2012 at 11:19 AM

Do local Kaddafi-nostalgiasts ever tire of aping Cynthia McKinney and Louis Farrakhan?

Who da’ heil does he think he is?

Nobody is interested in Rebar’s Kaddafi-nostalgia for the “King of kings of Africa.”

*sod off*

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 11:39 AM

meh… everyone knows realize mankai and Dennis Kucinich remain firmly aligned with Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Castro and Robert Mugabe who also reject our Libyan-Contra allies.

Ron Paul!

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 11:41 AM

Our Libyan-Contras’ UBL-style assasination of Kaddafi was a LONG overdue triumph for the Reagan Doctrine.

Flashback: American West 1892

Whiskey for my men, beer for my horse.

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 11:56 AM

Cordell on February 9, 2012 at 11:28 AM

You can’t handle logic, can you? And you still won’t answer my question.

I guess (using your illogic) that since you, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Queda all wanted Gaddafi out you are thus firmly aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda?

Terp Mole hearts Al Qaeda!

You’re a blind fool… and not terribly bright.

mankai on February 9, 2012 at 11:56 AM

Nobody reading any of his comments would find them credible.

blink on February 9, 2012 at 11:48 AM

Exactly why I provoke him.

His insane rantings make my case far better than I could.

Rebar on February 9, 2012 at 11:56 AM

blink on February 9, 2012 at 11:48 AM

You’re probably right… but I’m holding out hope that the fool will come to his senses and stop promoting Islamists as the greatest hope for the Middle East.

He presents a false dichotomy.

Terp, you might want to look up “false dichotomy.”

mankai on February 9, 2012 at 11:59 AM

blink/rebar/mankai sockpoppets spit: insane rantings

Your serially insane objections are better directed at Marc Thiessen, not me.

But why address rational arguments from folks like Thiessen when Rebar/Mankai/Blink can use his sockpuppet for a public colonoscopy, then crabwalk across the stage of HotAir expecting folks to admire the latest in Ron Paul headgear.

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 12:03 PM

mankai pouts: you still won’t answer my question

You answered yourself: false dichotomy

For the 458th time, our NTC Libyan-Contras are NOT al-Qaeda.

Nobody argued that Patton was anti-Soviet. That doesn’t mean his men were Soviet puppets for posing alongside Mussolini’s executioners.

Try harder to avoid peddling your goofy Troofer-slanders against our heroic NATO pilots by suggesting they supported al-Qaeda.

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 12:21 PM

For the 458th time, our NTC Libyan-Contras are NOT al-Qaeda.

Terp Mole on February 9, 2012 at 12:21 PM

The facts on the ground directly contradict that statement:

In Tripoli, Abdelhakim Belhaj, a well-known al Qaeda fighter and founder of the notorious Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), is now leading the rebel “military counsel” in Tripoli. A few weeks ago, Belhaj ordered his fighters to take command of the Tripoli airport, then controlled by a group of Zintan fighters, a brigade of Berber Libyans who helped liberate the capital from Gaddafi loyalists. A few days later, Belhaj gave a speech emphasizing that his actions had the blessings of Libya’s National Transitional Counsel (NTC), who appointed him to the leadership of Tripoli’s military command.

Rebar on February 9, 2012 at 12:31 PM