Saturday 19 March 2011

Cruise Missiles to be Used

 Military action may start with the use of Cruise missiles against sites in Libya, Italian reports suggest.  Danish jets have arrived at Sigonella.  Turkey is reported to have stated its support for the action against Gadaffi though it is not clear what form the support will take.

Headlines in the Italian press are the single word 'Guerra' [war]. 

4 comments:

Sackerson said...

I suspect the uprising has been sponsored. If so, there is blood on Western hands, just as with the case of the Iraqi Kurds.

hatfield girl said...

Whatever the causes of the start of the uprising, S, the concentration of military force around Libya is remarkable.

Every kind of aircraft, surveillance including satellite, ships from aircraft carriers to submarines (what are Canadian ships doing in the Med?) missiles, command structures up and running so smoothly for ostensibly very diverse forces. And now France has stated it will use ground forces if necessary. As has Italy - and why is the BBC representing what is happening so differently from the media here? And then slyly correcting themselves after the slippery words have had their effect?

If Gadaffi thinks it sensible to attack Italy I'm glad he's being attacked right back but I'm also astonished at the level of preparedness. And it's very strange reading: Grosseto, Piacenza, Brescia....you go to the seaside at Grosseto, you go to Piacenza for the art, the food...It turns out this is an armed camp.

Nick Drew said...

command structures up and running so smoothly

actually, NATO is quite good at this (& the French never dropped out of the command structure, even when they 'weren't playing' for many years)

it's been tested several times in recent years, starting with Gulf War 1 (1990-1) which was a very big test indeed: many nations involved (not just NATO) and a sustained burst of extremely dense operations

all manner of unexpected contingencies arose & were handled with aplomb

(the Russians, who were watching closely, were gobsmacked by how well it worked, and not a little unnerved)

hatfield girl said...

ND, according to the Italian main news the Russians are fit to be tied about the speed with which the anti-Gadaffi moves have been set going. 'Lamenta' was the word used.
The suspicion that Russia abstained because they expected Gadaffi to have taken Benghazi by the time the Allies got their act together is strong.

Then they could have brokered 'talks'.

But the bottom line is Italy is under missile threat from a raving madman with links to some of the worst acts and the worst people on earth.

Pact-in-the-Deserty Blairy lies; how much was handed to the Blair party?

And what has Lukashenko sold him? And why should we believe Berlusconi (kissy kissy let me get at your hand Rais) when he says the missiles can't reach Italy?