The Libyan Popular Uprising has hit a snag. Col. Mumar Qaddafi refuses to submit to the Al-Qaeda linked rebels. Now that NATO’s air-strikes haven’t beaten Qaddafi, there is talk of making the controlled areas of Libya a separate state.
BENGHAZI, Libya — “One Libya, with Tripoli as its capital” is spray-painted on walls around this rebel city and glides off the tongues of opposition leaders. Moammar Gaddafi will fall in a week, they predict, two at the most, and they’ll build a new country then.
But as weeks stretch into months and progress on the battlefield stalls, this rebel-held area of Libya is settling into its status as a de facto separate state.
Since the February uprising that ended Gaddafi’s rule here, schools and many businesses have remained closed. But police are back on the streets, hospitals are functioning and shops are slowly reopening. Behind the scenes, opposition leaders are feverishly courting international partners as they work to set up a political and economic system for a period of division that some quietly admit may stretch on indefinitely.
The Progressive-Islamic Axis is suffered a blow in Libya. Since they can’t defeat Qaddafi, now they want to dismember Libya.
