Neil Macdonald is the main corresponding to Washington for CBC News, where he joined in 1988 after 12 years in the newspapers. Prior to this position in 2003, Macdonald reported from the Middle East for five years. He won the Gemini Award in 2004 and 2009, for the best report; the most recent for his report on the economic crisis. He speaks French and English fluent and some Arabic.
Accessibility linksDown the road lay nothing. Route all naked and sand.
Through binoculars, you could see a camel, three kilometres later, ambling across shimmering pavement as a pool of water under the Sun of the North Africa.
The forces of Muammar al-Gaddafi, while certainly not there were some distance away.
Nevertheless, young men on the front line of the rebels were aligned behind a sand berm, on fire. One of them armed with an RPG-7--a rocket grenade. It takes place, to rose and is established with vigilance for a minute.
The fact that his weapon, with a range of perhaps 500 metres, could only come about step to kill even the camel does not appear to occur to him. Then missed his attention, and he began to discuss with peers on each side, swinging his armed RPG wildly back and forth.
If it has been made, Grenada would have blown harmlessly in the desert advance. But the backblast would have certainly killed one or more of the people of milling behind him.
Abdul Yassine Abdelrahim, 20, last fired a missile just three days ago. He did not know what was its target. CBC in other words, it is a lethal threat to his friends and no threat to everything that the forces of the dictator he seeks to overthrow. All around, more of the same took place. Strong arguments broke out among young men hefting Kalashnikov assault rifles with levers of security in the off position. Men waving around armed pistols. A journalist from Al-Jazeera, which would certainly have better because, in reality a missile exploded not located next to a tank grilled.
Abdullah al-Honi, a university student rebels, leaned against a Jeep. Here was part of our debate:
"Have one of your commanders have that you successfully determine the forces of Gaddafi how are here."
No.. "We do not know. ?
"You really had eyes on a target."
"Maybe three weeks."
But it was the night. And al-Honi did not fire his weapon. He said, that was all very confusing.
A few metres later, long-range Katyusha missiles, the kind from big, truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers, lay scattered around the Earth. Anyone so trend could grabbed a souvenir.
From time to time, a truck would zip by her bed cargo, equipped with a pod of cannibalisée since an attack helicopter missiles. The weapon system, intended to be fired in the air, is worse than useless when linked to a rickety floor platform. He has a nasty, backblast and one of them killed a doctor ambulance here two days ago.
Shebaab young workforce big anti-aircraft guns switched back and forth on their seats, sometimes shooting off the coast of a burst of calibre.50 shells nothing in particular.
At noon, a man climbed onto a truck and a call to prayer. Most of his comrades quickly aligned and are themselves to Allah.
And intermittently, rebels sent to perform recognition would scream through retired at high speed, pulling back on the empty desert.
'Gaddafi snipers and tanks killed hundreds of people, and NATO seems unable to do much about it, despite the rebels' belief that, if ordered, NATO could in the short term annihilate the forces of Gaddafi with pinpoint strikes. '
Almost all people with any experience in a war zone could see what was happening, and it has done, on the middle of the afternoon. Artillery began to fall. The rebels had boots closely enough and done enough unnecessary noise, that they would finally attracted fans of Gaddafi. Rebels scattered like flies as the shells exploded, and then fled.
Now, not all the rebels are thus totally inexperienced. Some are actually soldiers, Renegades of the army of the Gadhafi. They probably are a minority in the rebel force, tend to operate away from the cameras and are the sharp stick, as it is offensive to the rebels. Yet the status quo in eastern Libya is simple enough: rebels, armed and trained to varying degrees, generating more noise than the heat. And on the road, an army of Loyalists who can engage only from a distance, knowing what to do otherwise could attract a NATO airstrike. A losing, in other words.
On the Western front, hundreds of kilometres away, the situation is far more serious: the rebel-held city of Misrata is under siege. Gaddafi snipers and tanks killed hundreds of people and NATO seems unable to do a lot of things on it, despite the conviction that if rebels ordered, NATO could in short order annihilated the forces of Gaddafi with pinpoint strikes. None of this is what the original planners of the coalition had in mind. America, the France and Britain want a change of regime, preferably clean and fast.
Instead, it goes on the side and could easily get much worse.
The NATO mission, defined by the Security Council, is not supporting the rebels of the opposition. the work of the aircraft of the coalition is to protect Libyan civilians. But what happens if the eastern rebels push forward to, for example, the city of Surt?
It is the hometown of Gaddafi. Civilians it support, and some would defend their homes against the rebels, who have already demonstrated a willingness to kill prisoners.
Then? NATO jets would defend civil pro-Gaddafi against rebels?
If the rebels not to make any progress, it is still a dilemma. The Commander of the original American coalition, GEN Carter Ham, conceded the impasse last week and began speculating on the possibility of a ground invasion, something Barack Obama President of the United States has always been held, and that the UN resolution authorizing the air strikes specifically prohibited.
Militarily, however, it is the fastest way to remove al-Gaddafi.
I am not military historian, but I doubt any war has always combated like this: Brave amateurs, needlessly firing on its incredibly distant enemies, supervised by professionals in the friendly that could crush the enemy if, but for the moment, which must always in the air.
During this time, the dictator kept killing its civilians. Makes no sense. But I guess that it has not.
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