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The U.S. greeted Gaddafi's latest setbacks with unconcealed glee. "We basically jump for joy every time the Chadians ding the Libyans," said a U.S. official. State Department Spokesman Charles Redman asserted that "Libya has illegally occupied Chad for a number of years" and is believed to have up to 5,000 troops in the country, mostly in the Aozou Strip. The Reagan Administration has provided $33 million in military aid to Chad over the past ten months and last week was considering a new request for antiaircraft Stinger missiles. The White House hopes that Libya's losses in the war will help lead to a popular uprising against Gaddafi. But though the Libyan leader acknowledged in a speech two weeks ago that defections from his army have become a major problem, he is not about to give up his country's claims on the Aozou Strip. Indeed, learning from their mistakes, Libyan forces in recent weeks have adopted a weapon more suited than their cumbersome tanks to desert warfare: the machine-gun toting Toyota.