It's Libyan for "thank you"

[onodera]

I agree with Gribbler, these people are savages and there is nothing racist about calling them savages.

The USA really shouldn't have removed Kadaffi, first, because he had been your allie for the last years, and second, because a rather secular dictator is better than a democratically elected islamist.

This is a little like the issue of Chile before Pinochet, when the people democratically voted for a communist. Americans have to stop being so naive and idealistic and realize not all people are like them and that not everybody wants democracy.
Is democracy any good if people not want it, and if given the chance to vote would vote to end democracy?

The USA at least is still in time to stop giving weapons to the rebels who want to remove Assad from power in Syria

I like how you single-handedly decide what is best for the people.

[Hauldren Collider]

I agree with Gribbler, these people are savages and there is nothing racist about calling them savages.

The USA really shouldn't have removed Kadaffi, first, because he had been your allie for the last years, and second, because a rather secular dictator is better than a democratically elected islamist.

This is a little like the issue of Chile before Pinochet, when the people democratically voted for a communist. Americans have to stop being so naive and idealistic and realize not all people are like them and that not everybody wants democracy.
Is democracy any good if people not want it, and if given the chance to vote would vote to end democracy?

The USA at least is still in time to stop giving weapons to the rebels who want to remove Assad from power in Syria

I think that was me, not gribbler.

[Hauldren Collider]

also the libyan government can hardly be described as 'islamist'. the elections were won by secularists...

Has there been an election? I thought that they are still in a transitional government that was unelected.

And on the other hand, what of the Egyptian government? I'd say it's fair to describe the Muslim Brotherhood as islamist.

[DinoDoc]

I like how you single-handedly decide what is best for the people.

Didn't we do that already by intervening in the Libyan civil war?

[DinoDoc]

Has there been an election? I thought that they were still in a transitional government that was unelected.

On July 7, 2012, Libyans voted in their first parliamentary elections since the end of the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi. The election, in which more than 100 political parties have registered, will form an interim 200-member national assembly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_the_Libyan_civil_war#Events_after_Gaddafi.27s_death

[Barnabas]

The not-nice thing about Ghaddafi was if you were one of his citizens living under his oppressive rule.

Libya was far from perfect, but it was the wealthiest african country with the best standard of life.

[Barnabas]

The people who want the west to get involved in these conflicts are the ones who want to decide what is best for them. There is no reason to get involved in the civil war of another country.

[giblets]

Libya was far from perfect, but it was the wealthiest african country with the best standard of life.

It still will be when the dust settles. But of course any democratically government that fails to detect Al Qaeda cells operating in their borders and fails to stop Al Qaeda from killing Americans and destroying American buildings is obviously a massive failure that should be replaced by a dictatorship. (And before anyone claims that 9/11 fits this description, remember that Bush wasn't democratically elected )

[DinoDoc]

This might have been Libyan for thank you rather than the attack. Why did we ignore this and why do US government officials still claim this was not a pre planned assault?

Libya: We gave US three-day warning of Benghazi attack

American diplomats were warned of possible violent unrest in Benghazi three days before the killings of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three members of his team, Libyan security officials say.

The claim came as the country's interim President, Mohammed el-Megarif, said his government had information that the attack on the US consulate had been planned by an Islamist group with links to al-Qa'ida and with foreigners taking part.

However, the American ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, insisted that the killings had resulted from a demonstration against a film about the Prophet Mohamed, replicating protests in Cairo, which had been "hijacked" and got out of control.

The Independent has reported diplomatic sources who said that the threat of an attack against US interests in the region was known to the US administration 48 hours before it took place. The alert was issued by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but not made public. A State Department spokesman maintained: "We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the US Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent."

But President Megarif told the American station National Public Radio: "We firmly believe that this was a pre-calculated, pre-planned attack that was carried out specifically to attack the US Consulate. A few of those who joined in were foreigners who had entered Libya from different directions, some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria."

A senior official of the biggest militia in Benghazi, the February 17th Brigade, told CNN that he had warned US diplomats of a rapidly deteriorating security situation in Benghazi three days before the attack. "The situation is frightening, it scares us," he said he had stressed during the meeting. Mr Stevens had been back in Libya for only a short time before US security officials decided it would be safe to make the journey to Benghazi during the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The British consulate in the city was shut after an ambush of a convoy carrying Dominic Asquith, the UK ambassador, in which his bodyguard were injured. The UN and International Committee of the Red Cross offices had been bombed and there had been a spate of political assassinations.

However, Ms Rice denied the Benghazi attack was pre-planned. She said: "Our current best assessment... is that... it was a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo. "A small number of people came to the consulate. It seems to have been hijacked by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons... And it then evolved from there." Mr Stevens was separated from his protection team during the attack. He was found, it is thought unconscious, by locals who took him to hospital where, doctors said, he died from smoke inhalation.

The Americans who escaped from the consulate made their way to a "safe house" at a supposedly secret location. That, too, came under mortar fire. Captain Fathi al-Obeidi, who had taken an eight-strong American rescue team which had arrived from Tripoli to the safe house, said "I don't know how they found the place to carry out the attack. It was planned, the accuracy with which the mortars hit us was too good for any ordinary revolutionaries." On Sunday, the head of Libya's national congress said about 50 people had been arrested in connection with the attack on the US consulate, though the interior ministry put the figure far lower.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...k-8145242.html

[SlowwHand]

The whole Obama camp is clueless. The only thing he knows how to do is apologize for people who aren't sorry.

[dannubis]

You can copy paste that again.

[kentonio]

The whole Obama camp is clueless. The only thing he knows how to do is apologize for people who aren't sorry.

Yeah, that new magic apology he seems to have patented where he doesn't actually have to express any kind of apology or say sorry to anyone. That **** is some clever Kenyan muslim magic he's got going!

[MrFun]

Yeah, that new magic apology he seems to have patented where he doesn't actually have to express any kind of apology or say sorry to anyone. That **** is some clever Kenyan muslim magic he's got going!

[SlowwHand]

You said it, not me.

[molly bloom]

Libya was far from perfect, but it was the wealthiest african country with the best standard of life.

Except for that whole political prisoner thing. And being hunted down and killed abroad if you were a Libyan who didn't agree with the thoughts of Chairman G.- that seems to be going a bit far.


Surely just a polite note of rebuttal or a letter in The Times would have sufficed ?