350 UK Special Forces Soldiers in Libya

[Goldie fish]

Well they weren't there on holidays.

[Victor]

Illegal according to who ?

Invasion (although is this invasion or a raid?) is an act of war. Starting (not responding to one that someone else started) a war is a war crime.

[Orion]

Would the UK's position be different if it had recognised the Interim Transitional National Council (like France) before sending soldiers into Libya?

[faughanballagh]

Invasion (although is this invasion or a raid?) is an act of war. Starting (not responding to one that someone else started) a war is a war crime.

This is not true under international law.

[hedgehog]

This is not true under international law.

Imagine if 300 Libiyan Special Forces were dropped into England/USA/France

would that be an illegal act.

[easyrider]

Imagine if 300 Libiyan Special Forces were dropped into England/USA/France

would that be an illegal act.

But that would be different HH, because they would be towelhead terrorists, whereas our boys are true heroes!

[turbocalves]

This is not true under international law.

International law only matters if the parties involved subscribed to it. Otherwise it dont mean a thing. You put your troops forcibly in anyother country that is a casus belli in any mans book.

[Pod]

And that refugees cause cancer?

Nah- that was the Daily Express

[Goldie fish]

International law only matters if the parties involved subscribed to it. Otherwise it dont mean a thing. You put your troops forcibly in anyother country that is a casus belli in any mans book.

Up to last month Libya was accepted as a law abiding member of the world, with a popular, if oddball head of state.

[RoyalGreenJacket]

Imagine if 300 Libiyan Special Forces were dropped into England/USA/France

they wouldn't last long, except in Bradford perhaps

[Barry]

Up to last month Libya was accepted as a law abiding member of the world, with a popular, if oddball head of state.

So much for Tony Blair's "new relationship": http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3566545.stm

[sofa]

Britain's been full of muslin special forces/terrorist/insurgents/dole scroungers for years

[Goldie fish]

Britain's been full of muslin special forces/terrorist/insurgents/dole scroungers for years

Damn Muslins with their exceptionally light cloth...

[turbocalves]

Up to last month Libya was accepted as a law abiding member of the world, with a popular, if oddball head of state.

Easy come, Easy go.......

[Jungle]

Yeah, Muammar Gaddafi is a real nice guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya

On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 27-year-old army officer Muammar Gaddafi staged a coup d'état against King Idris, launching the Libyan Revolution. Gaddafi was, and is to this day, referred to as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution" in government statements and the official Libyan press.

On Prophet Muhammad's birthday in 1973, Muammar Gaddafi delivered his famous "Five-Point Address". The five main points of his address being:

- Suspension of all existing laws and implementation of Sharia
- Purging the country of the "politically sick"
- Creation of a "people's militia" to "protect the revolution"
- Administrative revolution
- Cultural revolution
Muammar Gaddafi set up an extensive surveillance system. Reportedly 10 to 20 percent of Libyans work in surveillance for the Revolutionary committees. The surveillance takes place in government, in factories, and in the education sector.

Muammar Gaddafi executed dissidents publicly and the executions were often rebroadcast on state television channels.

Muammar Gaddafi employed his network of diplomats and recruits to assassinate dozens of critical refugees around the world. Amnesty International listed at least 25 assassinations between 1980 and 1987.

In 1977, Libya officially became the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Later that same year, Gaddafi ordered an artillery strike on Egypt in retaliation against Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's intent to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Sadat's forces triumphed easily in a four-day border war that came to be known as the Libyan-Egyptian War, leaving over 400 Libyans dead and much of Gaddafi's armored divisions in ruins.

February 1977, Libya begins supplying Goukouni Oueddei and the People's Armed Forces (FAP) with substantial amounts of military supplies. The Chadian–Libyan conflict began in earnest when Gaddafi's long-held support of rebel forces in northern Chad escalated into a Libyan military invasion of its southern neighbor.

Hundreds of Libyans lost their lives in the war against Tanzania, when Gaddafi tried to save his friend Idi Amin. Gaddafi financed various other groups from anti-nuclear movements to Australian trade unions.

Once a breadbasket of ancient world, the eastern parts of the country become impoverished under Gaddafi's economic theories.

Much of the country’s income from oil, which soared in the 1970s, was spent on arms purchases and on sponsoring dozens of paramilitaries and terrorist groups around the world. An airstrike failed to kill Gaddafi in 1986. Libya was finally put under international sanctions after bombing of a commercial flight killed hundreds of travelers.

His friend Idi Amin ?? He may have slowed down in recent times, but the real Gaddafi has reappeared after being challenged by the Council.

I wish the Rebels the very best, hopefully they can turn Libya into a Democracy. I hope all the dictatorships will collapse; never in history (at least in that of the modern Democracies) have two democracies gone to war against each other. Democracy is the best hope for peace.

Some of the members on this site should put aside their anti-British, anti-US, anti-West feelings and support the rebels trying to turn a dictatorship into a Democracy, and the coalition Forces helping them.