The West's intervention in Libya is driven by a determination to regain control of the region following the overthrow of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt and the spreading of the Arab spring to other countries in the Middle East.
Stop the War Coalition
27 August 2011
The ugly face of Nato’s intervention in Libya is being revealed further with every day that passes. Dressed up as a mission to protect civilians from the Gadaffi regime, feted as a great step towards Arab revolution, this is a war for western advancement, power and control.
The bombing of Libya has been at its most intense in the past few days as the rebels entered Tripoli. Today, Gadaffi home town of Sirte is being heavily bombarded by the RAF as part of the NATO operation. Concern for Libyan citizens clearly doesn’t extend to Sirte’s population.
Countless thousands of civilians have already been killed in a war supposedly to protect them.The Transitional National Council (TNC) says it will take ten years to rebuild Libya, such has been the devastation of the country's infrastructure. No wonder the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has made a desperate plea for the "international community" -- which is code for the US and its allies -- to restore order.
Any pretence that this bombing conforms to the UN mandate which led to the Nato intervention back in March can no longer be sustained. The only reason for the bombing is to kill or capture Gadaffi, who has already clearly lost all state power in Libya. His capture or otherwise is now largely irrelevant to the future of Libya. It is therefore about regime change.
The war is not primarily a war of rebels against the government (or "insurgents" as they would be called if they were in Iraq or Afghanistan). It is Nato’s war. Nato provides the rebels’ air force, safe passage for their sea assault on Tripoli, special forces on the ground, satellite communications and logistical direction. The overthrow of Gadaffi could not have taken place without this help.
While few while mourn his departure, no one should welcome Nato control of the country. It has spearheaded a western intervention determined to regain its control of the region following the overthrow of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt and the spreading of the Arab spring to other countries in the Middle East.
Regime change has been achieved, but what will follow? Many of the new Transitional National Council (TNC) government, feted and funded by the west, were ministers for or supporters of Gadaffi up till a few months ago. They will now be given control of the country as long as they open it up to their western masters. The conference in Paris in ten days time will underline exactly who is in charge -- and it is definitely not the Libyan people.
British and French soldiers, police, administrators and oil men are all desperate to get control of the running of Libya.
The doctrine of humanitarian intervention, so tarnished after Iraq, is now being polished up for future use in Syria and elsewhere. It is a false promise.
No genuine democracy or freedom can come to Libya while there is western intervention. Every lesson from Iraq and Afghanistan is that the interests of those loyal to the west are promoted regardless of the cost to the ordinary people of the country. The same fate will await Libya -- and that’s what the war was all about.
We will be there.
Will you?
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