2011-07-13
Libyan Timeline
Here is my rough involvement in the Libyan freedom struggle:
2011-02-15 Uprising begins
2011-02-18 I instigated an Anonymous press release calling for a war of liberation.
2011-02-20 I made a video address to the Libyan people and also started writing letters to various governments asking for air support to be given to the rebels before they lost.
2011-02-21 I provided the bulk of an Anonymous press release although another group of Anons contradicted that.
2011-02-26 I instigated another Anonymous press release calling on the French et all to act unilaterally. There was another interesting press release at the time saying that you are the revolution. And another press release that explained the problem with China and Russia being on the wrong side of history.
2011-02-27 I saw an opportunity for a dramatic test of the West which I blogged about and went to great effort to try to ensure the message got heard, including going to the Chinese embassy the next day.
2011-03-16 I printed out 500 A4 flyers asking Australians to lobby the Australian government to send planes to Libya. I handed them out at the Broadway tunnel. I was finding it difficult to get people to accept flyers from me and then I saw a couple of young girls having great success handing out their flyers, so I paid them to hand out mine too. I went to a Town Hall meeting regarding Wikileaks the same day to see if I could do something to make a difference there.
2011-03-19 By this stage I had got a protest sign printed out asking for the Australian government to provide air support to the Libyan rebels. There was a Bradley Manning rally on in Martin Place, and I intended to hold my sign there. I attempted to go to that rally but wound up in Hyde Park instead, where there was obviously no rally! Fortunately soon after this Allied aircraft finally went into action, just as Benghazi was on the verge of being retaken by Gaddafi's thugs.
2011-03-22 I made a video address to the people of Tripoli explaining that it was not a lack of bravery that made it impossible for them to defeat Gaddafi's goons.
2011-03-24 I wrote to the Australian government asking for ground troops.
2011-03-26 I held my protest sign at the NSW elections. I had crossed out air support and was asking for ground troops now. My headband said "I love Libya" in Arabic. I had earlier seen an article on the BBC where a Libyan woman had that written on her hands. My Egyptian neighbour did the writing for me. The back of the headband had "democracy" written in Chinese characters, the same as a headband I was given during the Tiananmen Square Massacre protest in Sydney in 1989.
2011-06-20 I start writing on various Libyan blogs.
I was also active much of the time in the Anonymous chat room #oplibya
P.S. My involvement may well have had no impact in the decision to provide air support to the rebels, but at least I tried. During the Vietnam war people petitioned the government and got the government to do something bad. I'm trying the reverse of that, which is to get the government to do something good - ie liberate more people. It also highlights where the bottleneck is. We do not have a shortage of trained troops who could do this job. What we have is a shortage of POLITICAL WILL. Soldiers in Australia are not even allowed to get involved in political activities like that. In today's world, what we need is more people pushing for the political action of deploying western troops in support of freedom fighters.
P.P.S. I have reeditted this post with more information.
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2011-02-15 Uprising begins
2011-02-18 I instigated an Anonymous press release calling for a war of liberation.
2011-02-20 I made a video address to the Libyan people and also started writing letters to various governments asking for air support to be given to the rebels before they lost.
2011-02-21 I provided the bulk of an Anonymous press release although another group of Anons contradicted that.
2011-02-26 I instigated another Anonymous press release calling on the French et all to act unilaterally. There was another interesting press release at the time saying that you are the revolution. And another press release that explained the problem with China and Russia being on the wrong side of history.
2011-02-27 I saw an opportunity for a dramatic test of the West which I blogged about and went to great effort to try to ensure the message got heard, including going to the Chinese embassy the next day.
2011-03-16 I printed out 500 A4 flyers asking Australians to lobby the Australian government to send planes to Libya. I handed them out at the Broadway tunnel. I was finding it difficult to get people to accept flyers from me and then I saw a couple of young girls having great success handing out their flyers, so I paid them to hand out mine too. I went to a Town Hall meeting regarding Wikileaks the same day to see if I could do something to make a difference there.
2011-03-19 By this stage I had got a protest sign printed out asking for the Australian government to provide air support to the Libyan rebels. There was a Bradley Manning rally on in Martin Place, and I intended to hold my sign there. I attempted to go to that rally but wound up in Hyde Park instead, where there was obviously no rally! Fortunately soon after this Allied aircraft finally went into action, just as Benghazi was on the verge of being retaken by Gaddafi's thugs.
2011-03-22 I made a video address to the people of Tripoli explaining that it was not a lack of bravery that made it impossible for them to defeat Gaddafi's goons.
2011-03-24 I wrote to the Australian government asking for ground troops.
2011-03-26 I held my protest sign at the NSW elections. I had crossed out air support and was asking for ground troops now. My headband said "I love Libya" in Arabic. I had earlier seen an article on the BBC where a Libyan woman had that written on her hands. My Egyptian neighbour did the writing for me. The back of the headband had "democracy" written in Chinese characters, the same as a headband I was given during the Tiananmen Square Massacre protest in Sydney in 1989.
2011-06-20 I start writing on various Libyan blogs.
I was also active much of the time in the Anonymous chat room #oplibya
P.S. My involvement may well have had no impact in the decision to provide air support to the rebels, but at least I tried. During the Vietnam war people petitioned the government and got the government to do something bad. I'm trying the reverse of that, which is to get the government to do something good - ie liberate more people. It also highlights where the bottleneck is. We do not have a shortage of trained troops who could do this job. What we have is a shortage of POLITICAL WILL. Soldiers in Australia are not even allowed to get involved in political activities like that. In today's world, what we need is more people pushing for the political action of deploying western troops in support of freedom fighters.
P.P.S. I have reeditted this post with more information.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 19:47 
