A Distant Mirror for Imperialists in Libya: Lucan’s Pharsalia
Modern imperialists eager to rush into Libya should ponder Lucan’s Pharsalia, which treats of warfare in the Libyan desert during the contest between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great at the end of the Roman Republic. A critical passage in this Latin epic is the speech by Cato of Utica, a follower of Pompey, who urges his soldiers to undertake a suicide mission into Libya, saying: “Serpents, thirst, heat, and sand … Libya alone can present a multitude of woes that it would beseem men to fly from.” Cato goes forward, and finds “a little tomb to enclose [his] hallowed name, Libya secured the death of Cato….”
Editor: The above statement sets the scene for the article by Webster Tarpley introduced below. A multitude of special interest groups are evidently involved in the North African and Middle East upheavals at present. The article gives the reader a small piece of this complex picture.
The recycling of Bin Laden’s men
Once NATO enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, now NATO allies in Libya
by Webster G. Tarpley*
Drawing on the West Point Military Academy’s analysis of records seized in the Islamic Emirate of Iraq, U.S. historian and journalist Webster G. Tarpley demonstrates that the Libyan National Transitional Council is largely made up of elements affiliated with Al-Qaeda. In the context of a vast reorganization of its secret operations, the United States is enlisting in Libya - and in Syria - the jihadists that it is tracking down in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Bin Laden is dead! Long live the Bin Ladenists", cynics in Washington could well be proclaiming. Thoroughly researched article posted here
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