Operation Oil Theft: Month 2, Week 1, Day 5.

Yesterday (21/4/11) rebels in Libya announced that they had seized a government held border post in the mountainous tribal region bordering Tunisia. This claim has not been verified. Already skilled in media manipulation the rebels are claiming this gain is a humanitarian victory because it will allow them to deliver aid to the Libyan people. The only worry is that the Libyan government has already given permission for the UN to supply aid within secure areas. So by making this gain the rebels have probably only made it more difficult to deliver aid to that area possibly leading to a debate between the Libyan government and the UN over what is a "secure area" and will the UN need to bring in Defence Systems Limited as security if they're going to visit it.

The real reason why the rebels are celebrating seizing this border crossing is that it is believed to be part of a major Libyan government supply route, mainly used for fuel. Therefore by controlling it the rebels will be able to choke off supplies to the majority of the Libyan people then use humanitarian aid to buy support for their cause. This is actually quite an advanced military tactic which was pioneered by Britain's SAS so it does make you wonder just how many western Special Forces cells there are in Libya.

Also yesterday America announced that it will be using armed Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UVA) known as the Predator Drone in Libya. As with everything else in the Libya conflict this is merely a formalisation of something that's already happening rather then a statement of intent. The timing of the announcement relates to events in Pakistan which it would be unwise for me to comment on further because the initial idea was so ill-conceived.

However the announcement does highlight just how little thought America has put into the Libya situation and how they're still treating is as something of a joke. Rather then considering the complex diplomatic, moral and strategic implications of launching an unprovoked war of aggression against a sovereign nation Obama seems to be treating Libya as just an opportunity to feed that (rather large) part of his ego that sees himself as the Prince of Peace who is going save all of (wo)man kind. You would have thought he'd learnt his lesson after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize caused him to very nearly destroy the entire middle east peace process - something which is looking distinctly creaky at the moment.