Libya rebel success disappoints Aussie academic

Scott Burchill, described by Antony Loewenstein as a "leading Australian academic", yesterday predicted Libyan intervention doom and gloom:

Military intervention of the kind authorised by UN Security Council resolution 1973 last week may make the humanitarian crisis in Libya worse, as it did in Serbia in 1999. Milosevic’s attacks on Kosovars only escalated after NATO's bombing campaign began: it provided a new pretext for ethnic cleansing. Even though the West controls the skies over Libya today as NATO did 12 years ago over former Yugoslavia (without UN approval), we should expect ground attacks by increasingly desperate Gaddafi loyalists to intensify.

This is precisely what is happening at the moment in Misurata and Ajdabiya.

Wrongo brainiac:

Libyan opposition rebels have taken the strategic eastern city of Ajdabiya from government control, Al Jazeera's correspondent there reported.

"There is no doubt about it, you can probably hear some of the celebrations behind me, Ajdabiya is in opposition hands," Al Jazeera's James Bays said from the city on Saturday.

Interestingly, Burchill finds much to fault in U.S. Libya policy but offers no support whatsoever for courageous rebels seeking to overthrow, with U.S. support, Gaddafi. For Lefties, opposing the U.S. is more important than supporting self-determination.