It is sad to see so much unrest in the North African countries which border on the Mediterranean Sea. As I write, there have been troubles in a number of them.

The main country to hit the news was Egypt where protesters took over Tahrir Square in the center of the capital, Cairo. They succeeded in ousting their leader, President Hosni Mubarak who resigned after around 30 years of power. It took 18 days of demonstrations before the protesters achieved their goal.

It looks as though the latest uprising in Libya is going to take a much longer time to sort out however. Colonel Muammar Gaddifi does not look as though he is prepared to relinquish power. The Libyan rebels have controlled a large portion of the country for some time now but the superior fire power of the Army is gradually winning back all the territory that they controlled.

Indeed, as I write, according to the Wall Street Journal, President Obama is approaching the UN Security council to get agreement to military intervention in Libya. The U.N. have already called for a ceasefire but Col Gadaffi seems to take no notice. I understand that the intention is not to move any ground forces in there but to stop force being used by the Libyan government on their own people. This will probably be in the form of a no-fly zone for any aircraft other than humanitarian ones.

Personally I have very mixed feelings on this move. Whilst I have no wish to see the slaughter of many civilians in what is fast becoming a Civil War in the country, the other half of me sees that intervention by the West, particularly the U.S. and the U.K., has not really brought about a lot of stability in the countries that have meddled in so far. I am thinking of Afghanistan and Iraq in recent times and then, of course, back to Vietnam.

Tripoli will survive as a country undoubtedly whatever happens. It has been around since the 7th century BC when the Phoenicians were the inhabitants. Since then, because of its strategic position in the Mediterranean, it has seen a lot of warfare as it has been invaded by many different armies.

At present, the only stronghold that the anti government protesters hold is Benghazi which is in the East of the country. Will the intervention by the United Nations come in time to save more bloodshed. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands have already died in the conflicts.

Of course. whilst this is all going on, there will be no cruise ships visiting Tripoli on their Western Mediterranean cruises.

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