Meet the rebels

The New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson spent weeks reporting in Benghazi and "along the chaotic, shifting front line" with the Libyan rebels.

He provides an insightful take on who they are:

"The hard core of the fighters has been the shabab — the young people whose protests in mid-February sparked the uprising. They range from street toughs to university students (many in computer science, engineering, or medicine), and have been joined by unemployed hipsters and middle-aged mechanics, merchants, and storekeepers. There is a contingent of workers for foreign companies: oil and maritime engineers, construction supervisors, translators. There are former soldiers, their gunstocks painted red, green, and black—the suddenly ubiquitous colors of the pre-Qaddafi Libyan flag. And there are a few bearded religious men, more disciplined than the others, who appear intent on fighting at the dangerous tip of the advancing lines. It seems unlikely, however, that they represent Al Qaeda."

"People here regard themselves as decent and observant; a bit old-fashioned and parochial, but not Islamist radicals."

Anderson observed that many of the rebels "have rushed into combat as if it were an extension of the street protests, spurred by bravado and defiance but barely able to handle weapons."

"The fighting consists largely of a performance—dancing and singing and firing into the air—and of racing around in improvised gunwagons. The ritual goes on until they are sent scurrying by Qaddafi’s shells. In the early days of Qaddafi’s counterattack, youthful fighters were outraged that the enemy was firing real artillery at them. Many hundreds have died. The reality of combat has frightened the rebels, but it has also strengthened the resolve of those who have lost friends or brothers."

With professional training and leadership (presumably from abroad), the rebels may eventually turn into something like a proper army. But, for now, they have perhaps only a thousand trained fighters, and are woefully outgunned. Last week, a former Army officer told me, 'There is no army. It’s just us — a few volunteers like me and the shabab.'”

The desire for democracy, a free press and a viable private sector echoed strongly among the Libyans, Anderson reported. But he concluded with a cautionary note: "These are honorable aims. But to expect that they will be achieved easily is to deny the cost of decades of insanity, terror, and the deliberate eradication of civil society." That, of course, is the rub. Read Anderson's entire piece here.