“There will be no mercy. Our troops will be coming to Benghazi tonight.”
Perhaps it was the murderous threat contained within Gaddafi’s latest radio
message that shocked the United Nations into action today — because shocked into action they have been. After sweating and toiling over the precise formulation of a resolution on Libya,
the UN Security Council finally reached the voting stage this evening. And it has now voted 10-0 in favour of member states taking “all necessary measures … to protect civilian and
populated areas, including Benghazi, while excluding an occupation force.” Brazil, India, China, Russia and — staggeringly — Germany all abstained.
What this means, in practice, is a no-fly zone — and more. We are likely to see bombing raids on Gaddafi’s air defences, and perhaps on the serpentine column of troops and tanks that is on the road to Benghazi. It is thought that the first strikes could even come tonight, led — as this entire process has been — by us and the French, along with a selection of Arab air forces. There is a definite need for urgency. Thanks to the West’s hesitancy over the past week, Gaddafi did appear to be on the cusp of cruelly stamping out the rebellion. Any delay now, and he still might do the same.
As our forces ready themselves for conflict, there is a terrible question hovering over all this: how hard can Gaddafi hit back? His government is certainly putting up a belligerent front, threatening to retaliate in and around the Med. But, as the useful video below makes clear, their military hardware is likely to be outmoded and dilapidated. Not that this makes the situation any less alarming, though. After all, a musket can still kill. And, as the Libyan people know all too well, Gaddafi has more than muskets at his command.
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