Return from the Libyan Diaspora

Flag of the Libyan Arab Republic (1969-1978)Image via Wikipedia
Washington Post:

Growing up in Fairfax as the son of Libyan dissidents, Hesham Mansur was well aware of the horrors of Col. Moammar Gaddafi’s government.

But when the U.S.-born computer networking student registered for classes this semester at George Mason University, he had no idea that he would soon be in Libya, trying to overthrow that government himself.

“One of the Facebook comments was, ‘If you’re so brave, go do it yourself,’ ” Mansur, 27, said, recalling the flurry of Internet messages between Libyans abroad as the uprising gained steam. So on Feb. 28, less than two weeks after the protests began, he packed up medical supplies donated from Libyans in the United States, flew to Cairo and crossed into Libya by land.

He was not alone. For Libyans living in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Britain and elsewhere, the sight of their countrymen rising against Gaddafi’s 41-year rule inspired them to put their own lives on hold and race out to help.

“I felt like I’d done all the Twittering I could do,” said Ahmed Hnesh, 29, a management consultant from Falls Church who is friends with Mansur and arrived here a few days before him.

The returnees number in the hundreds, if not more. Many were dissidents or are the children of dissidents. They came back to provide humanitarian aid, moral support, expertise and front-line muscle.

The rebels’ provisional government includes a number of returnees from abroad, their cosmopolitanism and fluency in European languages helping them build diplomatic relationships. For those who choose to fight, overseas experience tends to be less helpful, though the self-proclaimed rebel army commander, Gen. Khalifa Haftr, spent years living in Fairfax.

Hnesh left the United States without telling his parents. Others living abroad have received tentative blessings from parents torn between fear for their safety and pride at their actions.

...
The good news in this story is that it is not just the al Qaeda exodus that is returning to fight for a change in Libya. Hopefully they will outnumber the Islamic supremacist of al Qaeda.
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