The Platoon Loyalists

Libya: Fierce battle underway for crucial Zawiyah oil refinery

As the rebels battled for control yesterday, battle orders were shouted out by commanders to bandolier-wearing volunteers in Free Libya T-shirts and desert fatigues while exhaust fumes accumulated in a haze that shimmered in the North African heat.

The footsoldiers vowed to take down the green flag of the Gaddafi regime flying over a refinery building. Elsewhere in Zawiyah, the rebel tricolour is flying in most districts despite continuing clashes in the centre and east of the city.

Troop leaders stressed again and again that the oil infrastructure should not be damaged. When the Gaddafi regime falls, the refinery will be a crucial component of establishing a functioning system.

Mourad Galil, commander of an irregular platoon of 7 men, said that he hoped the Gaddafi fighters would give up when it became clear they were outgunned.

"We have delayed as much as possible for talks to get these Gaddafi people out," he said. "Unfortunately they have vowed never to surrender. My men have orders not to damage any of the structure inside.

"We need this plant for a free Libya."

The opposition said it had sent two hundred men to the assault on the refinery. Its best estimates were that a few dozen Tuareg mercenary fighters from Chad had been left to defend the plant.

However Salwa Ahmed, a resident of the managers residential complex at the plant, estimated at scores of Gaddafi troops remained at the plant determined to resist the rebel takeover.

"We are leaving before the battle. The Gaddafi forces show no sign of backing down in fact they are still maintain patrols and search houses for weapons," she said. "It will not be safe."

Rebels loyal to the opposition National Transitional Council were also assaulting Brega oil terminal on the other side of the country. A hospital official said 18 had died in that offensive.

The Libyan rebels made a dramatic advance on Saturday out of their bases in the western mountains near Tunisia into Zawiya, just 30 miles of Tripoli. They took control of parts of the city of 200,000, and have since been slowly gaining ground in fierce battles with Gadhafi's forces for days.

#83. Platoon (1986)

“Platoon” may not be the best war movie ever made now that we have “Saving Private Ryan” but it is definitely the most important. Oliver Stone based this movie on his experiences in Vietnam, which not only gave the audience an important and rare glance at war from the inside, but it was also one of the first war movies that dared to tell the truth. Unlike the conspiracy theory movies Oliver Stone would come to be known for, “Platoon” does not dwell on the wherefores and whys of how the US found itself involved in this awful mess, nor does it try to politicize the motives of anyone involved, the film, much like the people stuck in the war, just has sort of an “it is what it is” air about it. Told from the perspective of Charlie Sheen’s character Pvt. Chris Taylor through a series of letters to his family that are narrated behind the action, the movie starts with his arrival in Vietnam in 1968. His squad leader, Sgt. Elias (played by Willem Dafoe in a rare and surprisingly fitting turn as a decent and caring guy) is at philosophical and tactical odds with the Platoon Sergeant SSG. Barnes (Tom Berenger). Taylor winds up caught in the middle- conflicted between his genuine respect for Elias and his obligatory respect for Barnes. Conflicts come to a head when nobody can agree on how to react to the discovery a farm village on the Cambodian border which may or may not be a secret base camp for the North Vietnamese, with Barnes and “his” people wanting to kill every man, woman and child in the village and Elias’ men wanting to just move along. This scene winds up becoming one of the most telling and important in the whole film, as not only do we found out exactly where each character stands in their level of discipline as a soldier- in other words, we separate the men from the baby-killers. This sets up the Platoon’s internal Civil War of sorts.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The kite runner

The jungle

The Kite Runner