[Debate] "another victory for the revolution"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Does John Rees think that Arabs don't read newspapers?

<http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/bodies-pile-up-in-tripoli-in-grim-legacy-of-liberation/story-e6frg6so-1226123186043>
Bodies pile up In Tripoli in grim legacy of liberation
John Lyons, Tripoli From: The Australian August 27, 2011 12:00AM

THE dead man was lying face up on the beach just in front of our
hotel. His body baked in the Mediterranean sun on the edge of the
water for two days.

Whoever he was, his fate in death is as bad as the end he met. The
rebels believed he was on the other side. "Gaddafi man," one rebel
said.

And the Gaddafi people, who had been sniping from a nearby building,
refused to collect him, fearing they would be shot as well.

Rebel fighters in utes stopped to have a look - an extraordinary
reaction in a Muslim country where a body is meant to be given a quick
burial.

After two days, the body finally disappeared - possibly washed into the sea.

Bodies are all over Libya. A woman who travelled to Buslim, a Gaddafi
stronghold, said she saw bodies all over the road.

She said the rebels were firing shells straight into buildings.

"They hate that place," she said. "They're determined to destroy it."

What's the difference between a "liberated" city and a dead city?

As I drove from Tunisia into Tripoli this week, drivers and guides
would point out towns which had been "liberated" by the rebels. But
almost every time they used the word the town was dead. War not only
kills people but wipes out whole communities.

Town after town was shut down. Shops had shutters closed and in some
towns we did not see a single person. They had had enough of fighting
and fled.

In some towns buildings and compounds had been bombed by NATO planes.

In others, mortar and bullet shells from Gaddafi and rebel forces had
done the damage.

As we drove across a valley still in contested territory the only sign
of life was a mangy dog.

Water and food are in short supply. Even Zawiyah, a city of 200,000
50km west of Tripoli, was largely shut down.

Gaddafi is falling but resuscitating all of Libya's "liberated cities"
will take much longer.

<http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/48600>
Libya: Dictator loses, but who wins?
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
By John Rees

. . . . .

And there is one other unpredictable effect. The Western powers may
get the regime they want in Libya, but the fall of Gaddafi will be
seen by many in the Arab world as another victory for the revolution.

This is an illusion because the main beneficiaries of the fall of
Gaddafi will be the major powers and it will encourage them in further
interventions in the Middle East.

But sometimes illusions have secondary positive effects.

And this illusion may encourage those who are fighting in Syria,
Yemen, Bahrain and elsewhere.

. . . . .

[Reprinted from British socialist website www.counterfire.org .]

-- 
Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://mrzine.org/>