In a post for the Condition One project that Charles already wrote about, a photojournalist/videographer writes of the Libyan rebel army:
Photojournalist Patrick Chauvel brings us this immersive video from the rebels' front lines. "It's a very sad story," he says. "These guys are students, they're hairdressers, they're bakers, bankers, philosophers, teachers. They are no military."
Chauvel is concerned for his safety. Gaddafi loyalists target the media and could cut off any escape. Four New York Times journalists are missing at the time and an Al Jazeera cameraman dies in the days that follow. Patrick says fighting in the flat, open desert divides the rebels into two camps: lucky and unlucky. Shelling hits at random, missing by hundreds of meters one moment and striking a direct hit the next. Chauvel fears the misses are the warning shots. He plans to escape before the battle becomes a massacre.
But the air strikes have turned the tide (for now) and the hairdressers, bakers, et al. are marching on Qaddafi's turf in Surt.
The ease of the rebel march west along the coast underscored the essential role of Western airstrikes, now focused mainly on Colonel Qaddafi’s ground troops, in reversing the rebels’ fortunes. But it also framed anew the question of how the poorly equipped and disorganized rebel forces might fare against Colonel Qaddafi’s garrison in Surt, where air cover may be less useful.
The (world-historical) fight continues in Yemen and Syria, though it seems to be on the defensive in Bahrain, where the opposition has moderated its demands after government crackdowns.
And now, a fact about Syria that has nothing to do with anything happening in this century, courtesy of the Guardian:
Swords made from Damascus steel have been much prized over the centuries. According to written sources, blades were prepared by heating and then cooling them rapidly — sometimes by plunging them into the urine of red-headed boys or into the body of a muscular slave.
