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Qaddafi After the Raid
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11270 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1986 |
1,763 Words |
| Author
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Sheila Louise Rees
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The U.S. air attacks on five targets in Benghazi and Tripoli have had an undeniable impact on Colonel Mummer Qaddafi's regime in Libya; however, the precise nature of the impact is difficult to determine.
Every sector of the Libyan populace appears to have rallied around Qaddafi. Intense feelings of patriotism and nationalism have combined with the officially supported, shrill anti-Americanism that has been fundamental to the Qaddafi regime. Thus, despite unconfirmed reports of disturbances in some military units following the attack, especially between the regular army and the air force, and between the army and the militia or "revolutionary guards," these forces previously divided by jealousies and rivalries appear to have uniformly lined up behind Qaddafi.
Indeed, since Secretary of State George Shultz stated publicly that one of the main goals of the United States in carrying our the bombing was to initiate divisions in Libyan society and provoke a military coup against Qaddafi, any Libyan critic of his leader risks being immediately branded an "American agent"--very likely with fatal results.
The road to confrontation actually commenced several years ago when Qaddafi laid claim to sovereignty over a huge expanse of the Mediterranean known as the Gulf of Sidra. That move was plainly illegal under international law, and the U.S. Sixth Fleet routinely contested Qaddafi's claim by steaming through and holding exercises in the gulf. Skirmishes had taken place before. In August 1981, two U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats were attacked by a pair of Soviet-made Libyan Soviet Union-22 fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. Both Libyan planes were shot
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