Slashdot Mirror
Politics: Libyan Rebels Announce Creation of a Republic
An anonymous reader writes "A report in p2pnet.net says a 'declaration for a temporary council in the Republic of Libya' has been published. The story quotes Alive in Libya, which says Mustafa Abdul Jaleel is the president, and Abdul Hafid Abdul Qader Ghoga is the deputy president and official spokesman. No other details are given."
A declaration by some wing of a splintered popular uprising in an African country, reported by a news source with zero credibility? Is this what Slashdot has come to? :(
It'd be just about as legitimate as Gadafi's rule is.
This group actually has backing from the local city councils that have been working to keep the local infrastructure running.
But now the problem is to have any credibility you need to be recognized by another nation; to that end as the dictator of Free Republic of Jim I hearby do recognize the Republic of Bob as a sovereign nation.
By the same token, we could talk about the 13 colonies and the British Crown. Remember, it's only treason if you lose.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
And if you lose, you end up in Gitmo.
Which rebellious US citizen, caught here in the US attempting to overthrow the US government, has found themselves in Gitmo? Please be specific.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
The amount of disparaging and dismissive comments made here, along with the generally tepid response in the West to the Libyan revolution(as well as the Arab revolutions in general) makes me feel that the West in general has no interest in democracy or freedom. Even amidst the general populace.
Obviously the west has little to gain politically or economically from any wave of democracy in the middle east. But even ideologically, people in the west seemed to be totally uninterested in recent events in the region.
Have we entered the age of "Meh, Freedom"? Maybe democracy, having hitched its fortunes to marketism and failed to deliver on its promises, has simply lost its lustre for westerners? Maybe the rise of China is turning people towards alternative forms of government? Maybe the west--and America in particular-- is tired of international conflicts and is entering a period of isolationism?
I don't know what it is, but comparing interest in the Arab revolutions to the interest in the Orange and Velvet revolutions only a few years ago, I'm struck by the increase in apathy, and in some cases dismissal by people living older democracies.
May the Maths Be with you!
It's more than a coup attempt, but less than a revolution. The rebels claim a port city, there's some fighting near the capital. Some army units are supporting the rebellion. This is the normal form of regime change in some countries. The people at the top change, but the whole government isn't replaced.
The announced head of the new government is a former justice minister. He seems to be the compromise choice of several factions, which is a good sign. Interestingly, this seems to be a secular rebellion. The leadership isn't talking about establishing an Islamic state.
If you enjoyed substantial popular support in said room, had recently captured a variety of arms caches, and were thus far holding the military of the existing regime at bay, while said regime takes a substantial battering in world opinion, it would in fact mean just as much...
Dirty little not-really-secret is, virtually all declarations of nationhood are legally risible. Some were legally risible and supported by armed force and resources. Others were just risible all around.
Well, I must have missed where they held elections. Anyway, since the link is a typical Slashdot non-story, let's talk about Harvard university professors supporting Khadaffy instead. Nicholas Negroponte from OLPC accepted his money and is proud of his participation. The really outrageous detail is that these professors were complicit in the award of a fraudulent PhD. For that they should have their tenure revoked and their academic positions removed. Of course, this won't happen. If a buffoon like me showed up to protest Haah-vahd, I'd be laughed out of the discussion due to my lack of a doctorate, and even if I did have one, my Ph.D would be mocked as the award of an inferior school. Khadaffy's son Saif is hardly the first to have his Ph.D thesis written for him. Unfortunately this is a perfect example of the principles (or lack thereof) of the cultured, intellectual elite who are convinced that they should be in charge of America. That they are reprehensible scalawags who are for sale to a tyrant will never be accepted. It would be like a socialist accepting that her ideology resulted in the deaths of millions of 20th century humans. The consequences are just too much to bear thinking about.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
So, you just use "Gitmo" as a generic term for "prosecuted?"
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Libya is already known as the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Republic" or in short the "Libyan Arab Republic".
Yasser Hamdi
a country founded on rebellion and treason
Ah, good ol' moral relativism!
The colonists rebelled against a monarchy that was denying them the liberties that became the foundation of the new country's constitutional framework. People living in the country now, who violently promote, say, a society based on Sharia law (which is inconsistent with those liberties) aren't fighting for the same thing as those colonists two centuries ago. They are promoting an objectively inferior social contract, and it's right to prevent that effort when the attempts become violent. And even more so when they are aligned with foreign actors that have vowed the end of the coutry and the culture that lives there.
Regardless, it's the violent ones that are in question, here. The country is full of people spouting off all sorts of nonsense and promoting everything from neo-Nazism to pan-global-Caliphates or just good old anarchy. And they get to keep right on doing so as long as they aren't trying to hurt people.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.