Once again, U.S. naval power was massed in the Mediterranean and poised to cross the imaginary "line of death" proclaimed by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi as marking his nation's territorial waters in the Gulf of Sidra. Once again, a senior U.S. Navy official insisted that "it is not provocative to assert internationally accepted rights" at sea. And once again no one took seriously the pro forma U.S. assertions that the naval exercises were routine. "Tommyrot!" scoffed a Pentagon source. "Of course we're aching for a go at Gaddafi." Agreed a senior White House aide: "If he sticks his head up, we'll clobber...
To the Shores of Tripoli ;
The Navy tests Gaddafi
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