Libya is free ... of Toyota Priuis!

Since I've been relegated to 1/2 days of work, more on that in a bit and still working more than a full day just in a dark cave in the afternoon, I've watched a good bit of coverage from the shores of Tripoli and the "freedom" of Libya. I figured I'd bullet out my thoughts or else the stream of conscious paragraph form might cause migraines:

1. The Libyan Freedom army, bunch of ex-Iraqi insurgents backed by NATO in Nike / Adidas track suits, have "taken" back Tripoli.  And by taken back, they have driven their Toyota Highlanders into town, fired off a couple hundred celebratory rounds and then left when the snipers started to pick off the soldiers celebrating in the streets.  Quick military note (Eindhoven, Nijmegen, Arnhem, Paris in 1944) -- make sure you've cleared the town of the enemy, before celebrating.


2. CNN is all over this and their reporters are getting shot at and unhappy. Why ... because they are imbedded with insurgents who have the military strategy of a four year old who is playing Stratego. Remember Stratego ... the spy dude was my favorite piece.


3. Ghadaffi's kids were captured ... or maybe not.  I know that the one that was captures sure looked free when he was standing on top of a tank shooting a member of the Libyan Freedom Army.  Seems that our defn of captured and free are different. For instance, if I'm standing in New York City, I have not occupied the city with my army, I'm clearly just standing in New York City. 


4. I've asked this question for years ... why must people in the Middle East (I'm considering changing its name to the Middle Least) insistent on firing their rifles in the air to celebrate.  Here are my issues with that:  1. Bullets must come down, 2. Perhaps you might want to save your ammo ... the track suits give off the impression you not the greatest supplied army in the world, 3. If the enemy is still in the city and your heaving hundreds of celebratory rounds in the air, what are you going to do when they come around the corner because you have pretty much wasted all your ammo and announced your presence to the bad guys? 


5. And most importantly, are those people not worried about crazy Gaddafi? Here's a guy that blew up a passenger plane and has a good deal of mustard gas and other fun, exciting WMDs ... and yes, he still has them. There's nothing preventing him from using them on his own people ... I mean, he's been shooting them for the last couple of months and I promise he won't surrender.


6. The sad part ... this looks like Iraq all over again. Who's going to stop the looting and clan fighting once Gaddafi is going to die? (see Iraq, Yugoslavia if you want proof of religious / ethnic freedom after a republic falls). 


7. If Obama sends more troops from vacation, he ought to be exiled to Greenland with out a parka. Let the French sort this one out ... they were eager to start it, so let them finish it.