I know Libyans who are strong supporters of the rebellion, and in their situation that is understandable. However, having memories of the propaganda campaigns that preceded previous British interventions in the middle east, I am suspicious of the whole thing. The rebel movement looks to me like Northern Alliance Mk II.
On the FN rifles I see the Wikepedia page on the FN lists both Libya and the Libyan rebels as users of the rifle. It is possible that they were supplied by the British prior to 1973. I will ask a Libyan friend what firearm they were trained on the days of their army service. The video however did not rest the case just on the FN rifles but on a variety of other western weapons and the apparent presence of trainers who did not look Libyan. ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Louis Proyect [[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 4:49 PM To: Progressive Economics Subject: Re: [Pen-l] When did nato start supplying arms to the rebels On 4/20/11 11:21 AM, Carrol Cox wrote: > The U.S. and EU have never once given support to an actual democratic > movement in any of the world's weaker nations. The question posed idn > teh subject line is redundant since it is a given that a movement > supported in any way by the EU or US is not a democratic movement. The > very existence of a debate among leftists on this topic is immenselly > sdaddening. The debate has never been about intervention. It has been about the character of the Qaddafi government. By analogy, I had debates with Michael Karadjis of the Australian DSP over Milosevic, whether he was trying to preserve Titoism in some fashion or not, etc. But neither Karadjis or I supported NATO's war. The problem we are facing in the current debate is that some elements of the pro-Qaddafi left are reluctant to come out and say that he is "one of us" so their emphasis is more on how rotten his enemies are. I regard this approach as cheap demagogy. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l The University of Glasgow, charity number SC004401 _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
