? Everyone I asked -- bankers, shop clerks, students, construction workers, oil engineers and ex-Gaddafi loyalists -- offered the same answer: Freedom. It was like the end of Braveheart every time a rebel looked into my eyes and said it. One 16-year-old told me, I will die so the others can at least breathe free air. Heady stuff for a teenager, especially when most of the rebels are n't old enough to have known a political system other than Gaddafism. Risking your life for freedom is one thing. But risking it for the concept of freedom is something else entirely. See the rest of The Rebels of Libya at VICE.COM When we finally got to Misurata, it was surrounded by Gaddafi's troops and only accessible by sea. We slowly made our way toward the front, stopping periodically to talk to rebels. One 15-year-old boy I met was preparing a Grad-missile truck for battle. Beaming, he wondered whether I could ask Clinton and Obama for new weapons so that they could beat Gaddafi and he could fulfill his dream of playing for the Miami Heat or the Dallas Mavericks. As we talked, it struck me how much had changed in such a short period. This was a different Libya than the one I experienced last year -- a completely new country.