Liberty and Looting in Libya

Couldn't resist that title. Alliteration has its own charm.

The rebels have made their way across most of the country, and Gaddafi is nowhere to be found. What they did find, however, was his hometown, dominated by members of the tribe he belongs to. And these rebellious liberators wasted no time in looting it and burning portions that caught their fancy. A bit like what happened in Iraq after Saddam's ouster, you know, what with museums being looted and such. Of course, no TV cameras to show it to the world this time.

The few media reports I read about it, they first went on about how this town was being a pain in the collective arse of the rebels by holding out for very long. And then, once it had been 'liberated' too, one report about Red Cross trying to move in to help the many women and children who had been, to put it politely, fucked over by liberators in the process of liberation. A necessary evil fallout, I am sure.

Before any of this happened, there is also the amusing story about stockpiles of Libyan weapons that were lying around for whoever wanted to take them. Shame I wasn't around, else I would have got myself a hand-held surface-to-air rocket launcher, at the very least. That would have been that for all those pesky aeroplanes that keep flying over my house at all hours, never letting me sleep. But seriously, that's how it went down. Anyone walking by the ruins left behind by NATO bombings (which selectively targeted locations like ammunition depots) could easily walk over to and get their hands on all sorts of weapons that we usually get to see only in films. And that is precisely what people were doing. There are ample reports of people driving up in trucks of varying sizes, filling them up with weapons of choice, thanking the NATO forces for helping them out with this little bonanza, test-firing a rocket or two into some wilderness and being on their way.

Way to go, you stupid interfering fucks. Just what we need. Hi-tech weapons up for grabs for anyone who wants them, for whatever reason he wants them. And I doubt those reasons will be 'hunting'. Unless, of course, we are talking hunting in an urban jungle, a la Eli Roth's Hostel.