james robbins, bbc news. >> many of these activists we speak to say they do not want troops on the ground there are activists about whether there should be a no-fly zone and whether there should be air strikes on the capital of tripoli. his air force still poses a threat. >> for the rebels here, the sky is the danger. colonel gaddafi has sent his plane's three times so far to attack these weapons. in fact, two of the three pilots send it to attack this. miss. that is a relief, because they're hopelessly neglected. there is a large number of mortar bombs made in britain. >> the british staff like the rest is a very elegant. one of the rebels volunteered to drive into the arms dump. everyone we spoke to was hoping for a no-fly zone by the western powers. >> please, we want a free people of europe and america to listen to our requests. >> but now, there is no protection against the air force, just a few nervous volunteers working at random. bbc news. >> welcoming here in the east, opposition continues to organize to run the day-to-day affairs in those areas which are no longer under the cont

james robbins has more. >> an extraordinary convoy, saudi armed forces rolling in across the causeway which links the two gulf kingdoms. it is extraordinary because it is the first time an arab regime asked for the support of foreign troops and it suggests that the ruling royal family is not at all sure it can hang on to power without their help. saudi arabia say its deployed 1,000 troops, a response to mounting protests on the streets. clashes between protesters and police spread yesterday after a month of confrontation. on one side demonstrators from the majority community, shi'ia muslim. on the other forces defending the power of the minority community, the sunni muslims who control parliament and make up the elite around the sunni royal family. this is a sectarian clash about the dominance of the king and his ruling family and hold the main military posts. some want it gone replaced by a republic. others say they can stay provided real power passes to the people. a statement by the country's crown prince insisting the way is open to national dialogue butt opposition regards the ar

[applause] [applause] >> we are here talking about james robbins about his latest book "this time wen." >> it's a book about the vietnam war, which was an outstanding victory, and was reported as a defeat, and has gone down in history as a defeat. the purpose of the book is to try to clear that up. >> how do you go about that task? or how did you? >> well, going back to the original documents and declassified, talking about people that were involved and reviewing the case that was made that it was a defeat, and trying to show how some of the points that were made about ted were actually wrong. >> did you explain how the media at the time and i guess over history have gotten it wrong? >> in the wrong of the book it was contemporary wars like iraq and afghanistan, they use it as an analogy. i start with quotes from contemporary, and go back and retrace it. >> can you list the specific thing that's your inspiration for getting started on this? >> other than my publisher wanted it? i've been studying counterinsurgency for 30 years. i've never people who were involved. one of my friends w

. >> and this time we went, "washington times" senior editorial writer james robbins argues that the tet offensive was actually failure for the north vietnamese and that the u.s. media and lt-