Reply #35: Richard Engel transcript

[chowder66]

http://www.livedash.com/transcript/the_rachel_maddow_show/52/MSNBC/Tuesday_March_22_2011/573349/

There is more at the link above. Including a discussion on Yemen.
Rachel: Do you see a strong difference between this, the character of this american intervention, and the other ones we just talked about, richard?

Richard: Well, I was sort of surprised. In the last several months, been touring the middle east, covering these revolts, and suddenly I woke up one morning, found myself covering an american war in libya. And it sort of came out of no place. I didn't see it coming. And I still look around and say how did I end up here covering an american military action in libya.
I understand why it happened. There was this probably very real need for protection for the city of benghazi. Gadhafi's troops were right on the edge of this city.
They were going to go in, they were going to go hard, they were going to kill people.
Walking around today, there was tremendous sense of relief. People no longer feel terrified, don't worry gadhafi's troops will come in and slit throats for support.
The rebels are now completely dependent on foreign military intervention.
Once you've given them air and ground support, and they believe they have an alliance with the united states military, how do you take that back without exposing them to the same sort of fear and real danger that they were exposed to before.

Rachel: Richard, what kind of impact is the western intervention having on gadhafi's forces?

Richard: The strategy, at least the declared strategy is to make things safe enough for the rebels that they can win on their own.

Rachel: Do you see anything like that happening?

Richard: That's going to be a tough one. These rebels are divided into two groups. They are the volunteers, and these rebels have really no military experience, very little sophistication, very little education. A lot of bravado, but we were with rebels that didn't know how to load weapons. They were dropping round of ammunition on the ground.
A lot of them are fighting for weird conspiracy theories. One in five of the rebels today told me they are fighting because they think gadhafi is jewish.
So they do not have the same ideals that americans think they do have.
The other group of the rebels is people, units that defektd from gadhafi's army. If we're waiting for these defected units to go and storm the frontlines, we may have to be waiting a bit longer.
I went looking for one of the top commanders here, actually the top commander, and we went to the military base and knocked on the door. He decided to take the day off. And I was shocked at that. You would think if the U.S. military had just joined your revolution, after two plus days, that this wouldn't be the time to go home and spend time with the family.

Rachel: Unbelievable.


On Edit: Richard was in Tobruk, Libya