Franklin Lamb: France Says NATO Bombing Has Failed.

One of the jokes heard at this week's massive pro-government Friday post prayer rally at Green Square is about how each morning Libya's leader, following early morning Fajr prayers dons his formal uniform, complete with huge epaulets, and salutes the small NATO flag he tapes to his bathroom mirror as he moves from place to place dodging NATO drones and assassins. "Our leader does this", one young lady informed me first with a wide smile and then growing serious, "because the NATO bombing of Libyan civilians, which the US/NATO axis claims Qaddafi is doing, has caused his popularity to skyrocket among our proud and nationalist tribal people. I am one example of this. Yes, of course we can use some new blood and long overdue reform in our government. Which country cannot? But first we must defeat the NATO invaders, and then we can sort out our problems among our tribes, including the so-calked "NATO Rebels". Since the beginning of the NATO operation (3/31/11), the alliance has conducted nearly 15,000 sorties, including close to 6,000 bombing missions according to NATO's media office in Naples, Italy. The most recent attacks reported on 7/9/11 included 112 sorties and 48 bomb/missile attacks, and that is about average. The two most active Embassies in Libya these days are the Russians and the Chinese. On 2/25/11, according to the Bulgarian Embassy staff, which was falsely rumored to be currently handing US consular services, since the US has no representatives in Libya, are extremely busy these days. NATO, Diplomatic, and Congressional sources confirm that the Obama Administration erred badly in thinking that Libya's regime would collapse "in a few days, not weeks" as Obama assured the American public which has to pay $ 5 billion thru July 31 this year! Obama's miscalculation will most likely cost him the presidency, unless, like JFK, an assassin does the job. As one student at Tripoli's Al Fatah University commented, "What your American government has done in this region to destroy yourselves since 9/11 is amazing to Libyans. Now you are going to fight us? Why? You already had your oil at bargain prices. We stupidly put our sovereign funds into US banks, and we did not even bother Israel much! 70 years ago, we sacrificed nearly one third of our population to expel the Italians. Doesn't anyone in the United States study HISTORY??? We are armed and will use our weapons. Among the errors our leadership has made, one of the worst is that we believed the US agreements we made in 2004. The Iranians and North Koreans laugh at us for trusting you and giving up nuclear and biological weapons. Believe me, if Qadaffi leaves power, you will miss him, because the Libyan people will be tougher against your projects than he has been!