⌛ Another Sad Day!

What goes round comes round

I seems quite poignant to me that this turmoil is happening to Libya right now.
41 years ago, exactly to the day, I was in a small group who were the very last British military personnel to leave Libyan soil. We had been sent out some months previously, from our base in Worcester, to cover the withdrawal from RAF El Adem. Gadhafi had already come to power when, as a signals Captain in the Libyan army, he had staged a coup and deposed King Idris. He immediately promoted himself to Colonel and demanded the closure of British and American bases. The American base was at Wheelus. For the next couple of months the RAF flew a huge amount of sorties getting people and equipment out of there, until there was just a token force of us remaining, supported by a company of Fusiliers and a squadron from the 17/21st Lancers, who patrolled the perimeter in armoured cars. With just a few weeks to go before the scheduled final day, Gadhafi played the awkward card. He wanted us out, but he made sure that doing it became as difficult as possible. The water was cut off, he banned any local from selling us fresh food, he played havoc with the electricity supply, and he banned the RAF from Libyan airspace so we couldn't fly out. Then a couple of Russian Ilyushins flew in full of "advisors". This put us even more on our guard. As we couldn't fly any more of our stuff out, we decided that anything that was flammable would be burned and all we would leave was empty buildings and an airstrip. So huge bonfires were arranged, and matresses, bedding, chairs, desks, tables, even doors from the buildings all went up in smoke. With water, fuel and rations running dangerously low, we got the order to move, formed a convoy and drove to the harbour in Tobruk where we boarded one of the last troopships ever used, the Empire Gull. Anything of value that could be winched aboard was, and the rest was abandoned on the quayside. My four radio cabins were highly classified, so I had to remain on the quayside until they were winched aboard. Once they were on, I was up the gangway like a rat up a drainpipe. I've never been so happy to leave a country behind. Sailing out of Tobruk was a blissful experience. I believe the American base at Wheelus also closed a few months later.

Since then, Gadhafi has amassed huge personal wealth whilst a lot of his country lives in abject poverty, because like all dictators, he surrounded himself with relatives, sympathisers and yes-men, all of whom were rewarded with untold wealth and priveledges. He has funded and financed many of the terrorist and dissident groups around the world, and by those actions alone he is responsible for many deaths and atrocities in many countries. He has supported AlQuaeda, the Taliban, Hammas, Shining Path, even rebel groups in Mindanao, and has been the principal provider of funds and shiploads of weapons and explosives to the IRA. He has set up training camps for terrorists not just in Libya, but in Pakistan and the Yemen too. He is singularly responsible for the appalling bombing of Pan Am flight 103, and many Brits will remember the murder of a young policewoman, Yvonne Fletcher, shot dead in a London street. The shot that killed her came from the Libyan Embassy.

So the no-fly zone that he created for us has now been applied to him. Having previously provided all the ingredients for the bombing of others, he is now on the receiving end. Yes indeed, what goes round comes round, and its' come back with a vengeance. This guy is a hemorroid on the *sshole of mankind and if fire power from any nation takes him out, then the world is rid of at least one unstable, delusional and very dangerous despot. I, for one, would not lose a wink of sleep over it.

 

Roger, here here, a very eloquent written post with your personal experience to back it up. I am antiwar except when it comes to stopping muslim jihad. Take out their leadership and their financial funding with smart bombs.
Please come by again for some smb's and strategy how to solve the work problems.

 

Invite!

Let me know next time so I can join you two!


Jack P.