Reflections on Why has the Revolution Stalled in Libya

[Rakhmetov]

Why has Gaddafi not fallen yet? Which way the conflict in Libya is going to end in the short term, no one can say. It is one thing for Gaddafi to take the cities, it is another to hold them down. With each city that he takes, his forces are stretched. Once he has taken a city he must leave some forces there to make sure the people don’t rise up again. This weakens his forces as they advance. And the closer he gets to Benghazi the more difficult it will get.

http://www.marxist.com/why-has-revolution-stalled-in-libya.htm

[Threetune]

Why has Gaddafi not fallen yet? Which way the conflict in Libya is going to end in the short term, no one can say. It is one thing for Gaddafi to take the cities, it is another to hold them down. With each city that he takes, his forces are stretched. Once he has taken a city he must leave some forces there to make sure the people don’t rise up again. This weakens his forces as they advance. And the closer he gets to Benghazi the more difficult it will get.

Your link to the ‘In Defence Of Marxism’ journal says:
“Initially Libya seemed to be going the same way as Tunisia and Egypt."
Not so, Tunisia and Egypt did not have recourse to many small arms, and not heavy arms at all.
"The speed with which the movement took large areas of the country, indicates that the population hates Gaddafi and wants to see an end to his dictatorship."
Some for sure, but nothing like Tunisia and Egypt. That is clear now.
The cities that fell to the insurgents did so not through outright military victories against the state apparatus, but through popular uprisings”
The piece says and hopes so, but can't prove it.