The crackdown in Libya will only harden the opposition’s demands

Dictators abound in the region but Qaddafi is really something else. He’s not even subtle about cracking down. At least the Iranian and Egyptian governments, however unconvincingly, offered some denials or tried to blame other parties. The pro-regime  Al-Zahf al-Akhdar newspaper “warned that the government would ‘violently and thunderously respond’ to the protests, and said those opposing the regime risked ‘suicide’.”  Simply put, if you come out, they will kill you and it’ll be your own fault because you were forewarned.  Libyan forces have been accused of even shooting at funeral processions! More than 200 have died in just a week’s time.  The number is probably much much higher.  But you have to respect the Libyan activists because they’re continuing and they’re continuing strong.  See the footage from Saturday’s protest here.  Qaddafi’s decision to spill so much blood effectively means that there can no longer be any sort of compromise with the government. While the Bahraini authorities are inviting the opposition to a national dialogue, a  gesture seen as futile by large swaths of the opposition, the Libyan mass murder will only harden the opposition against the state.  The response to such bloodshed effectively means that there can be no reform, no compromise short of the regime’s total destruction.