Bloody civil wars in the 21st Century have taken on a distinctly ludicrous quality in many ways. Consider this story of the National soccer team of Libyan throwing its support behind the rebel factions engaged in war with Col. Moammar Gadhafi and forces loyal to him. Well it’s not the entire team I don’t think but 17 high profile figures in Libyan soccer have reportedly defected to the rebel side, including the national team’s goalkeeper Juma Ghat and the coach of Tripoli’s top club al-Ahly, Adel bin Issa.
As has become standard procedure for people fighting the oppression of violent dictators the defections were first announced via a video post to a rebel Facebook page. Despite the severity of the situation they find themselves in they are acting very much like this is just another publicity campaign. Mr Gtat and Mr bin Issa also made a separate announcement with the BBC from their hotel in the Nafusa Mountains in western Libya, a rebel stronghold. The two men have gone to the region to be with members of the rebellion and “to send a message that Libya should be unified and free”. As the BBC notes, however, soccer players and social networking are fantastic tools in winning the propaganda war but the rebels are still far from achieving the kind of decisive military victories needed for them to ultimately oust Gadhafi.
