What the US-led West is doing in Libya is what they have always done: remaining silent about the excesses of a helpful dictator as long as he is able to keep the masses under control. They court the autocrat, enter into lucrative business deals with him and earn super profits by selling weapons including devices of mob control like tear gas shells, rubber bullets, water cannons and weapons that dictators can use against protestors in urban areas. Once the masses are up against the dictator, and there is little hope of his remaining in power, the US-led West starts condemning his excesses and praising the peoples struggle.
Soon after Libya renounced the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in 2003, sanctions were lifted and Gaddafi began to be treated as a darling of the West. The driving forces in the revival of relations were the multinationals and the big business concerns. In 2004, Tony Blair who was the chief supporter of Bush in his efforts to take the flame of democracy to all the nooks and corners of the world darkened by autocrats like Saddam, called on Gaddafi and brought him in from the cold. Later, Britain also agreed to prematurely release imprisoned Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi in return for concessions to the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell.
Italian Premiere Berlusconi traveled to Libya to sign a treaty of peace and friendship with Gaddafi. He also brought back home a lucrative contract to build a new motorway in Libya. Instead of using the huge reserves of funds at his disposal to improve the livelihood of the Libyans, Gaddafi employed them to cultivate relations with the West. Libya currently has stakes in ENI, the biggest Italian oil-cum-gas company. It also has 7.5 percent shares in UniCredit, the largest Italian bank, 2 percent shares in Finmeccanica which is Italys biggest defence and security firm and 7.5 percent shares in Juventus, the world famous football team.
Oil companies from the US have signed a number of agreements with Libya, Occidental alone investing $ billion. A New York Times report tells how one by one, top executives of American oil companies met privately over the past year with Gaddafi as they lined up contracts allowing them to tap into the country’s oil reserves..
Now that the people of Libya have liberated a part of their country and are about to remove the dictator through their own struggle, the US has jumped into the fray with President Obama declaring that Gaddafis regime has lost legitimacy. Followed by another American poodle in Prime Ministers seat in Britain, both countries are mulling military intervention in Libya.
Hopefully the EU emergency summit meeting scheduled for today will reject the calls by the US and British leaders for enforcing a no fly-zone on Libya. On Monday, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he had ordered his top brass to work with Britain’s allies on a plan to establish a military no-fly zone over Libya.
A day later, in testimony before Congress, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was reported to have stated that a no-fly zone is under active consideration. On Wednesday two US amphibious warships, the USS Ponce and the USS Kearsarge, arrived in the Mediterranean.
Any military adventure against Libya would be a disservice to the Libyan people. This would provide Gaddafi an excuse to portray the ongoing struggle as a Western conspiracy. The adventure could turn the autocrat into a hero fighting to save his country from imperialist powers. Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups would use it as a ploy to rouse anti-West sentiments. What is more, the destruction and dislocation of population which would take place as a result of the aerial bombardments would be used by countries like Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Bahrain as an argument to dissuade those wanting democracy. They would be told their struggle would also lead to chaos, destruction of the economy and foreign intervention.
Let the Arab people deal with their autocrats and kings and sheiks themselves. The awakening in the Arab world has already aroused the masses into action in a number of countries. The overthrow of two regimes has given them a sense of power. They own the changes that have been brought about by their own efforts.
Whatever the Americans touch, turns into ashes. The US intervention to overthrow Saddam Hussain let loose fissiparous tendencies in Iraq which have torn the society apart. The country has not seen peace after the arrival of the US and the Allied army. This must not be allowed to happen in Libya.
The writer is a former academic and a political analyst.
