GADHAFI VOWS TO FIGHT TO THE DEATH

LIBYAN LEADER GADDAFI VOWS TO
FIGHT ON, NATO JETS POUND TRIPOLI

Tripoli, Libya – Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi vowed to fight to the death in a defiant speech Tuesday after NATO military craft unleashed a ferocious series of some daytime airstrikes on Tripoli. In a phone call to Libyan state television station, Gadhafi angrily denounced the rebels who rose up against him in mid-February, inspired by a wave of Arab uprisings. “We will not kneel!” he shouted. “We will not surrender: we only have one choice - to the end! Death, victory, it does not matter, we are not surrendering!” he shouted. As he spoke, the sound of low-flying military craft could be heard whooshing through Tripoli again, and Gadhafi quickly hung up. Gadhafi has mostly been in hiding since NATO strikes in April targeted one of his homes. Several structures in the Gadhafi compound were badly damaged in Tuesday’s strikes. Daylight NATO raids have been rare and signal an intensification of the alliance bid to drive Gadhafi from power.

NATO officials have warned for days that they were increasing the scope and intensity of their two-month campaign to oust Gadhafi after more than 40 years in power. The alliance is assisting a four-month old rebel insurgency that has seized swaths of eastern Libya and pockets in the regime’s stronghold in the west. As NATO intensifies air attacks on Tripoli, there appears to be renewed diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful end to the civil war. A U.N. envoy was expected in the country Tuesday. So far diplomacy has failed, given that rebels are demanding Gadhafi leave power. The dictator steadfastly refuses to cede power. The conflict grews beyond an insurrection and has now evolved into a civil war.

Waves of NATO aircraft hit Tripoli in the most sustained bombardment of the Libyan capital since Western forces began air strikes in March.  War planes were striking different parts of the city several times an hour, hour after hour, rattling windows and sending clouds of grey smoke into the sky, but Muammar Gaddafi vowed on Tuesday to fight to the death.  U.S. President Obama said it only a matter of time till Libyan leader goes.  As long as bloodshed continues the more difficult it will be to build a national reconciliation process after the civil war.  The discord and suffering continue, again and again. 

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?  

So we are mourning, we take birth, we die, take birth, “punar api janmam - punar api maranam”. Again and again we take birth. Again and again we die. It is told: if we surrender to the Supreme Lord Krishna, he is the Supreme Lord, and we surrender to him, then he will save us from suffering. He will save us. And how to surrender? Surrender is easy: “Oh Lord. You are the master of the universe. You are the creator of this universe. You are the protector of this universe. You are the savior of the universe.”  The moment he surrenders and repeats the namam then he will be free from suffering.  Suffering eternally.  Not for the present only. Eternally he will be free from the suffering. And he will go to a place wherefrom he need not come back.

Śrīla Bhakti Vaibhava Purī Mahārāj:
“Lecture in Novo Mesto, Slovenia 26.6.1999”
Śrī Krishna Chaitanya Mission - http://www.purimaharaj.com/