Our Libyan Friends

Armed revolution is never pretty. In Benghazi, LA Times reporter David Zucchino finds the ugly side of the Libyan uprising:

Rebel forces are detaining anyone suspected of serving or assisting the Kadafi regime, locking them up in the same prisons once used to detain and torture Kadafi's opponents. For a month, gangs of young gunmen have roamed the city, rousting Libyan blacks and immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa from their homes and holding them for interrogation as suspected mercenaries or government spies. . . .

One young man from Ghana bolted from the prisoners queue. He shouted in English at an American reporter: "I'm not a soldier! I work for a construction company in Benghazi! They took me from my house … "

A guard shoved the prisoner back toward the cells.

"Go back inside!" he ordered.

The guard turned to the reporter and said: "He lies. He's a mercenary."

Since Qaddafi really is using mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa to suppress the rebellion, for the rebels to become suspicious of blacks was probably just inevitable. But I have to wonder about the long-term prospects for a decent government in this situation.