It's Working

Well, I'm nibbling on some crow right now, but it's hard not also to feel joy at this news:

Rebel fighters pushed past the oil towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf, meeting little resistance as they recaptured two important refineries. By the evening, they had pushed the front line west of Bin Jawwad, according to fighters returning from the front. Emboldened by the retaking of the strategic crossroads city of Ajdabiya on Saturday, the rebels have moved rapidly, taking advantage of what the Qaddafi government has called a “tactical pullback.” There were clashes with government forces overnight near the town of Uqaylah, on the main coastal road to Ras Lanuf, but nothing after that. “There wasn’t resistance,” said Faraj Sheydani, 42, a rebel fighter interviewed on his return from the front. “There was no one in front of us. There’s no fighting.”

The key town, by all accounts, is Surt, Qaddafi's Tikrit. It was bombed by NATO last night:

If Surt falls, “it is game over,” one man said, insisting that the atmosphere in the capital was already slipping. “The government is losing control,” he said. “You can’t touch it but you can feel it.”

(Photo: A Libyan rebel looks though a multiple rocket launcher (MRL) on the outskirts of the town of Bin Jawad on March 27, 2011 as rebels pushed westwards in hot pursuit of Moamer Kadhafi's forces, winning back control of the key Ras Lanuf oil site and pressing on towards Kadhafi's hometown of Sirte, a central coastal city. By Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images.)