NTC can’t take Sirte, needs NATO help

NTC can’t take Sirte, needs NATO help
(new-power.org)

Since the fall of Tripoli, the so-called National Transition Council (NTC) has sought to extend its hold over the rest of Libya. Gaddafi’s forces appear to have retreated to areas where Gaddafi’s support is strongest, including Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, which lays halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi. Sirte has now been declared the capital of Libya by the Gaddafi regime following the NTC capture of Tripoli. However, things are not going exactly according to NATO’s plans. Once against the NTC requires help from NATO to impose its will. Just as the NTC required NATO bombs in the sky and MI-6 muscle on the ground to turn the tide against Gaddafi leading up to the battle for Tripoli, just as the NTC required NATO bombs to take Tripoli, the NTC has demonstrated that it cannot even take Sirte without NATO help. This is a profound statement about the unpopular character of the NATO-backed uprising. After being beaten back several times, the NTC now asks NATO to increase its bombing of Sirte.

The number of NATO sorties against Libya is well over 20,000 now. Not only does this confirm the Gaddafi regime’s claim that NATO is acting as an air force for the NTC, but it has created a greater humanitarian disaster. According to mainstream media, thousands of civilians have been forced to flee due to the NTC and NATO offensives. Over 3,000 have been forced to flee. The price for the civilians of Sirte has been high. Reporting on an attack a little over a week ago, Gaddafi’s regime stated:

“NATO attacked the city of Sirte last night with more than 30 rockets directed at the city’s main hotel and the Tamin building, which consists of more than 90 residential flats. The result is more than 354 dead and 89 still missing and almost 700 injured in one night.”

The mainstream media confirms the carnage. An elderly woman reportedly said:

“They are bombing us and women and children are dying.”

Another resident:

“Since the 19th March when Nato started bombing we have been living in hell.”

Another:

“There is no medicine, no food, no electricity. It is a disaster.”

According to mainstream reports, the NTC forces are not making distinctions between combatants loyal to the regime and citizens caught in the crossfire. Some NTC loyalists implied that all of the residents were legitimate targets and the civilians had “chosen to die.” According to NTC loyalists, “Here, inside [Sirte], most people still want Gaddafi.”

NATO will oblige its NTC clients with more bombings aimed at the populations of Sirte and other Gaddafi strongholds. However, NATO’s help comes with strings attached. In a high-profile visit to Libya, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and others toured Tripoli and met with the head of the NTC, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil and other high-ranking officials. Graham reported to journalists that “there is a desire here by the Libyan people to make sure that those who helped will get paid back.”

McCain was also optimistic that Libya under the NTC would play ball with the United States:

“I think that American investors are more than eager to come invest here in Libya and we hope and believe that they will be given an opportunity to do so.”

McCain, like much of the First Worldist social-imperialists, expressed hope that Gaddafi’s fall will also lead to color revolutions in Syria and Iran. It is the duty of all Leading Lights to oppose imperialist intervention, even when it disguises itself as rebellion.

Sources

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8794617/Libya-exodus-from-Sirte-as-thousands-flee-rebel-offensive.html
http://news.yahoo.com/anti-kadhafi-fighters-capture-hometown-port-101257414.html
http://news.yahoo.com/us-senator-says-libya-wants-pay-back-supporters-172008157.html
https://new-power.org/2011/08/29/clarity-on-libya-mi6-is-not-part-of-the-united-front/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/17/gaddafi-claims-nato-airstrikes-kill-hundreds