Why does Colonel Gaddafi have such viciously loyal army troops?
A chunk of his military also defected to the rebels. They have at least one ship, some planes, tanks and anti-aircraft that came from military elements that defected. I have not seen a number on how many switched sides though. Also remember the pilot at the beginning of all of this that defected to Italy instead of bombing the rebels. They are not all as loyal as they seem. Of the ones that are loyal, it could be tribal, for stability or all they have ever known. Qaddafi also has his own information campaign that keeps a lot of them in the dark. Also I read there is a portion of his followers who are not even Libyan and are just paid by him.
Gaddafi had a huge radical cult following, back in the day. All your terrorists and radicals loved him, and we should remember that if we are stupid enough to consider invading, because those guys will be planting IEDs in our Humvees and possibly commercial jetliners for years to come if we occupy Libya.
