Archive for 'North Africa'
Toothpick Work Needed in Libya
One of the myriad examples of the abject failure at high-level to plan for a post-invasion Iraq was that Harry Barnes – former Labour MP for Derbyshire North East – had his advice sought. The reason being that he had carried-out his National Service there five decades previously.
Harry opposed the invasion at every Parliamentary [...]
Posted: August 22nd, 2011 under Do Something!, North Africa.
Who Killed Abdul Fatah Younis?
As desirable a consumation as dislodging Gaddafi definitely is, I had grave doubts about Operation Odyssey Dawn from the outset; not least because of the wisdom in basing efforts on air and sea strikes.
Boringly, one constituency of gushing support was based on previous opposition to the invasion of Iraq – because, you know, it was [...]
Posted: July 31st, 2011 under North Africa.
Tunisia: something very fragile and messy
This is a guest post by Ben Judah
I’ve just written a dispatch in this month’s issue of Standpoint about my odyssey through from Tunis to the Libyan borders through the sour, confused and chaotic underworld of the Arab spring – where hopes for a better future mix with intense anger at Israel, shambolic power bids and the [...]
Posted: April 3rd, 2011 under North Africa.
Muslim Association of Britain Supports British Action In Libya
From the Muslim Association of Britain, the British franchise of the Muslim Brotherhood:
The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) is in agreement with the enforcement of the no-fly in Libya, by Britain and its allies in order to protect Libyan civilians from being murdered by its cruel dictator Qaddafi. However this certainly raises serious concerns about [...]
Posted: April 1st, 2011 under North Africa.
Refugee crisis in Ivory Coast
With the news firmly focused on the Middle East (and even the BBC now seems to have noticed there’s a bit of unrest in Syria) it’s easy to overlook the continuing crisis in Ivory Coast. Alec gives an excellent account of the complex background to that conflict here. In brief, although Alassane Ouattara was judged [...]
Posted: March 26th, 2011 under North Africa.
Gaddafi Mumbles
According to this 1990 interview with Swedish journalist and talk-show host, Stina Lundberg Dabrowski, Gaddafi does not approve of blasting trains and killing hostages.
Passenger airliners, on the other hand…
Posted: March 23rd, 2011 under North Africa.
Mrs Parsons in Tripoli
A tale from Tripoli:
Several primary school teachers recount similar stories of young pupils being questioned by school employees aligned to the regime’s Revolutionary Committee Movement, which is being used to suppress dissent.
The conversations they have with these children, as young as eight years old, are along the lines of: “How are your parents? Are they [...]
Posted: March 18th, 2011 under North Africa.
Recycling
Gaddafi is rifling through his back catalogue and bringing out hits we haven’t heard for a long time:
Colonel Gaddafi threatened retaliatory attacks on passenger aircraft in the Mediterranean last night if foreign countries launched air strikes against Libya.
Boo! Heard it before! Boring!
Posted: March 18th, 2011 under North Africa.
The World Acts. ¡No pasarán!
Eventually:
The UN Security Council has backed a no-fly zone over Libya and “all necessary measures” short of an invasion “to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas”.
The UK, France and Lebanon proposed the council resolution, with US support.
There are reports of celebrations in Benghazi on hearing this news, but we can only hope that this action is [...]
Posted: March 17th, 2011 under North Africa.
How about a British-French no-fly zone in Libya?
There are many times when plodding in international relations is good. So generally I haven’t had much of a problem with the Obama administration’s deliberately slow and painstaking approach to the rest of the world.
But there are also times to act swiftly and decisively. And the time for action in Libya is now (or rather [...]
Posted: March 16th, 2011 under North Africa.