I'm starting to get that feeling I had when the Berlin Wall came down (yes I can remember that).
What man would not be pleased in having 40 highly trained and deadly body guards who just happened to be beautiful enough for professional modeling? Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is such a man blessed with an entourage of femme fatale called the Amazonian Guard.
The Amazonian Guard are put through rigorous training at a special academy and if they make it through the basic training ordeal are experts with firearms and martial arts making them trained killers. The women who qualify for duty are required to be virgins and must be hand picked by Qaddafi himself.
I was born the year the wall came down.
I want to be a middle eastren dictator. :(
I want to be a middle eastren dictator. :(
I have a better chance then you do
Aren't you the canadian with the earring and no experience with woman?
Arseholes, Considered As A Strategic Resource (http://d-squareddigest.blogspot.com/2011/02/arseholes-considered-as-strategic.html) Post on the use of counterrevolutionary militias to stomp down protesters, from one of my absolute favorite blogs.
Techniques of the Counterrevolution (http://bloodandtreasure.typepad.com/blood_treasure/2011/02/techniques-of-the-counter-revolution.html) How-to guide on how to suppress demonstrations before they become a problem.
This is my advice to any aspiring dictator; early on in your career, identify and inventory all the self-pitying, bullying shitheads your country has to offer. Anyone with a grievance, a beer belly and enough strength to swing a pickaxe handle will do. You don't need to bother with military training or discipline because they're hopefully never going to be used as a proper military force - just concentrate on nuturing their sense that they, despite appearances, are the backbone of the country, and allowing them to understand that although rules are rules, there are some people who just need a slap. The bigger and burlier the better, but when the time comes they'll be fighting in groups against people weaker than themselves, often under cover of darkness, so numbers are more important than anything else. The extractive industries are indeed often a good source, as are demobbed veterans (Zimbabwe) or the laity of an established religion.
I think this is my new rule for assessing the stability of any dictatorship around the world, and I am on the lookout for any Francis Fukuyama style book contracts. The key factor in determining the survival of repressive regimes isn't economics, religion or military success. It's arseholes.
who will win?
http://www.gaddafiprize.org/WhoEn.htm (http://www.gaddafiprize.org/WhoEn.htm)
I don't even know where to look for news about the situation. At worst it sounds like a freaking civil war just broke out.
but that can't be, right?
What is going on right now is absolutely revolting; bombing my own capital, massacring my own people, with the entire world gazing upon me... can he/it get any crazier than this?
Apparently (and I think I'm stealing this from one of the links I posted) there aren't any likely places to give Qaddafi a safe haven, so he could very well be trying to suppress the revolution as if his life depended on it in a very literal sense.
BENGHAZI, Libya — Leader Moammar Gadhafi says al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is behind the uprising in Libya and al-Qaida followers give young Libyans hallucinogenic pills in their coffee to get them to revolt.
Gadhafi has made the comments in a phone call to Libyan state TV Thursday, expressing condolences for deaths in the city of Zawiya but chiding its residents for joining the rebellion.
He says those revolting are "loyal to bin Laden ... This is al-Qaida that the whole world is fighting."
He says al-Qaida militants are "exploiting" teenagers, giving them "hallucinogenic pills in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe."