 |
| Stories are circulating that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has poisoned the water as he fights to end demonstrations in Benghazi and Tripoli. Photograph: Sabri Elmhedwi/EPA |
Sun Feb 20, 2011
By Christian Lowe
ALGIERS (Reuters) – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi will fight attempts to unseat him until “the last man standing,” one of his sons said on Sunday after days of protests reached the capital.
At least 233 people have now been killed since unrest started last week, Human Rights Watch said, making Libya’s uprising one of the bloodiest to have erupted in the Arab world over the past two months.
IS GADDAFI BLUFFING?
No. Gaddafi’s security forces really could fight until the last man is standing because they know that if their boss falls, they too must fear for their lives.
This is the crucial difference between Libya and its neighbors Egypt and Tunisia.
In those countries, entrenched leaders were toppled because the military decided it was not prepared to fire on civilians to preserve the power of the head of state. That was possible because the military in Tunisia and Egypt preserved a degree of autonomy from the president. They existed as institutions in their own right and retained some public credibility.
No comments:
Post a Comment