Dictators of a feather... (The Chavez plan to save Gaddafi)

Muammar Gaddafi's bestest buddy, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, is doing his best to find a way of saving his fellow dictator's hide.

The very model of a
moronic Major General

Chavez realizes that with Gaddafi, gone, not only will there be one less psychopath at the UN blaming all the world's ills on American imperialism, but with the rapidly declining number of world leaders who dress as if they're performing in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, it'll make him stand out all the more as a buffoon.

So Chavez has floated a peace plan that is rather transparently designed to buy time for Gaddafi and keep him in power.

The other side in Libya, the Libyan National Council, which represents the rebel groups battling Gaddafi's loyalists and mercenaries, has rejected the Chavez plan, as has The United States, the U.K. and France. The Libyan National Council wants international recognition as the legitimate government and have requested that a No Fly Zone be imposed, so that Gaddafi can't use the strategic advantage that his air force and helicopters give him over the rebels.

When it comes to ground forces versus ground forces, the rebels have an big advantage in that they are much better motivated than Gaddafi's mercenaries and are likely to fight more fiercely.

The mercenaries have homes in foreign countries to which they can return. Gaddafi's opponents, were they to be defeated, would have only two options, flee abroad or be killed.

As a side note, this CNN photo shows the traditional anti-Semitic component which always appears in some part of Arab protests, in the form of trying to paint their enemies as either Jews or agents of Jews. The irony of portraying Gaddafi, who was one of the most ferocious enemies of Israel, as a Jew, speaks to the absurd perceptions that still dominate that part of the world.