Pink Floyd in Libya

In the July/August issue of the Atlantic Monthly, there's a short article on 22-year-old former engineering student, Abdulfatah Shaka. He fights for the Libyan rebels, carries an RPG, plays guitar and loves Pink Floyd. Libyan Rebels: A Sound Track. One moment he's clearing out sniper's nests and the next in the lull of the battle he's joined other members of his unit playing and singing.

He tells the story of how in the dead of night, “When it got really quiet, we’d play guitar and sing ‘Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb?’ The snipers would get furious and start shooting everywhere.”

I remember the scene in the movie Patton when Patton's Third Army is on the road to Bastogne to relieve the 101st Airborne. When Colonel Bell tells Patton that General McAuliffe's response to the German surrender demand was, "Nuts," Patton laughs and says, "Keep them moving, colonel. A man that eloquent has to be saved."

Perhaps, the same is true of Shaka, and why we should be supporting the Libyan rebels. A man that eloquent has to be saved.