SwiftVets.com

[FreeFall]

I found this article in the October issue of Forbes fyi magazine and it's pretty interesting. You will never read an article like this in the liberal media! It's a 5 page story, info below starts on page 4.

http://www.forbes.com/fyi/2005/1031/100_4.html

People are as friendly here as everywhere, and they're downright enthusiastic when they hear that I'm an American, with greetings and introductions and offers to show me around. One fellow invites me to attend a concert in the evening with him; another gives me a music cassette of a popular Libyan singer. Such friendliness is typical in souks and bazaars. Usually it's contrived, part of the selling ritual. Here, though, no one tries to sell me anything at all. Like prisoners in solitary, they seem happy enough just for the contact.

I've been warned that people won't talk politics. The society is known to be crawling with informers. Yet, when I ask questions, I find numerous willing talkers who in quiet, private spaces express vigorous disgust with the Leader and everyone associated with him. They wish the 1986 U.S. bombing, which targeted Qaddafi personally and killed a four-year-old girl said to have been his adopted daughter, had been successful in removing him.

"America has to come and do for us what she do for Iraq," one fellow says. He's probably about 30, but serious tooth decay makes him look older. (I'll refrain from describing him further, lest he lose more teeth, or worse.) "Thirty-six years of this is enough."

"I'm not sure the Iraqis are so happy at the moment," I say.

"Were they happy before? America did Iraq a very, very big favor. Why not she do for Libya?"

"Aren't you afraid, speaking to me like this?"

"I don't care," he says. "Let them come and take me! This is no life here." Yet, when a stranger approaches, he falls silent. After she leaves, he says, "You know, the truth is, I am very tense talking to you." He repeats that he doesn't care, but he looks suddenly anxious.

His viewpoint does not seem uncommon. In one place, a half-dozen men crowd around one fellow who speaks passable English, and they feed him lines to pass along. They want freedom. They want democracy. The newly announced reforms are window-dressing, and Qaddafi has to go. They speak with such passion that I'm concerned they got the impression that it's all my call whether the troops will come; meantime, I feel as if I've somehow fallen into a group dream for neoconservatives. When the English-speaker is called away for a minute, the others stand looking at me quietly, except for one elderly fellow who knows a couple of words. "Bush wonderful!" he says. "Bush wonderful!" Later, when I take out my camera, they all duck and run for cover.

[shawa]

Amazing article, FreeFall, Thanks for posting.
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“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776)