The people in Libya are undoubtedly going through an extreme test – with murderous agents of Gaddafi seeking to strike back at the Ummah’s uprising; tribal rivalries breaking out; looting in areas where there is no formal legal authority; and dire conditions in the airport at Tripoli, where literally thousands of people who are resident workers in Libya wish to go back to their homes in different regions.
However, within the past 24 hours the British media – in particular the state run BBC – has started raising the question of whether or not foreign intervention is necessary – whether by the UN, NATO – or anyone – to can avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
Some eyewitnesses who have just left Libya have talked on BBC news about the disastrous conditions for evacuees at the airport. Other Libyan residents have spoken fearfully and anonymously by phone about the regime striking back at the people; and have been asked whether or not they fear a chemical weapons attack. Only 24 hours earlier former British diplomats did not believe Gaddafi even possessed chemical weapons to carry out any such attack.
The net result has been a concluding question, sometimes answered by a desperate voice from Libya, or from seasoned British politicians – that some form of intervention was necessary by the ‘international community’.
But what type of intervention? Western ‘humanitarian’ and liberal interventions are rarely constructive and hardly ever altruistic. They have managed to avoid intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo where, since 1998, an estimated 5 million people have been killed due to war, and its secondary consequences.
Britain managed to botch its own attempts to evacuate its citizens from Libya (despite unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain over the past 2 months, which would ordinarily give a few warnings that there might be a need for some forward planning in this crucial regard). The idea Britain could save a country from a disintegrating tyrant is unrealistic. Similarly, if the United States is up to its neck following its brutal interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, which managed to make a bad situation a thousand times worse, it is hard to see how it could make things better for Libyans.
Could it simply be in order to establish a no-fly zone, which would protect BP and other petroleum companies? After all, Libya, unlike Tunisia and Egypt, exports over 80% of its oil to Europe. Any threat to this would have ramifications for oil prices, and consequently inflation, in the west.
Similarly, a humanitarian catastrophe in Libya could create an unprecedented refugee crisis for Europe. Something Jack Straw cited as a reason for intervention in Kosovo when he was in government. Or is it just media talk, trying to fill the 24 hour media cycle?
The truth remains to be seen. But given their track record, this talk is something that should be monitored carefully, lest it is acted upon by the policy makers.
Question which begs to be answered in response to this article is that what alternative is there? We can clearly see that Qaddafi is not willing to give up his seat of power and will utiltise what ever means in his control to stop this revolution in Libya…Thus clear indications now all point to the physical intervention wether through the UN or even unilateral intervention by the US or in co-ordiantion with european powers to remove Qaddafi and replace with some sort of mandate.
Assalamu alaikum,
Thanks for the comment. Foreign interventions in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Namibia have all proved disastrous.
Even examples like Kosovo that were stabilised by intervention have resulted in a long term military presence, which would be unacceptable in Libya.
The long and short is that, with their appalling track record, the UN, NATO, US, UK and EU have no moral authority to intervene militarily.
The people of the region should sort it out – either within Libya, or its “neighbours” who have an interest in preventing instability, but who also are not really neighbours – they are actually from one and the same heritage and part of one ummah. So we call upon the Egyptian army to join with their brothers in Libya and overthrow Gadaffi.
Wassalam, Abdallah
France crushed the then democratically elected FIS in Algeria from assuming power thereby denying the people the right to choose Islamic government. Prior to that Italy planted Gaddafi to prevent Islamic rule in Libya. The West did the same with Hamas in Palestine.
However the ground realities have change to the extent that Gaddafi having eliminated ALL/ANY opposition to his rule is unable to be succeeded by another Western puppet; unlike the situation in Tunisia & Egypt, which still have the existing regime structure in place, though their respective figure-head Presidents have fled. This means the masses in Libya are for the first time, ‘free’ to establish an Islamic State as there are no remnants of Gaddafi regime remaining as an obstacles. Hence, EU, US stand to lose a major source of oil and thus “reasons” must be manufactured for them to intervene militarily. The stakes are too high for them to pay mere lip service.
Meanwhile chants on Libyan streets remain: ALLAHU AKBAR!
“The long and short is that, with their appalling track record, the UN, NATO, US, UK and EU have no moral authority to intervene militarily.”
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Despite this, they have “intervened,” because denial of access to a rich source of oil supply would be too bleak a prospect.
US, FRANCE, BRITAIN SET UP BASES IN LIBYA
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/167578.html
Britain, France and the United States have dispatched hundreds of military advisors to Libya to set up military bases in the country’s oil-rich east, reports say.
Several Libyan diplomats have been quoted by news outlets as saying these forces are setting up bases in the eastern cities of Benghazi and Tobruk — the two oil-rich cities that have been liberated by the opposition forces. British and US special forces entered Libyan port cities of Benghazi and Toburk on February 23 and 24. Three Indian navy warships are also expected to be deployed in the region. Earlier on Monday, the US military…
It’s funny how the British Prime Minister, David Cameron can’t make up his mind what principles to follow. From criticising the previous government from intervening in Afghanistan and Iraq, One would suppose he’d keep out of Libya, but we now see him changing his tune…an opportunist…!
“Just as 1989 saw the collapse of the Russian empire in Eastern Europe, so it now looks as if 2011 will mark the removal of many of America’s client regimes in the Arab world. It is highly unlikely, however, that events will thereafter take the tidy path the White House would prefer.”
“Far from being inspired by Twitter, a great many of Arab people who have driven the sensational events of recent weeks are illiterate. They have been impelled into action by mass poverty and unemployment, allied to a sense of disgust at vast divergences of wealth and grotesque corruption. It is too early to chart the future course of events with confidence, but it seems unlikely that these liberated peoples will look to Washington and New York as their political or economic model.”
“The great question is whether America will take its diminished status gracefully, or…”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100077625/how-will-america-handle-the-fall-of-its-middle-east-empire/
Given what is unfolding in Libya and the likely trajectory of events ahead of us, some intervention may be necessary if Gaddafi manages to regain the momentum. Will HT support humanitarian intervention to topple Gaddafi even if it is from NATO or will they, for ideological reasons, oppose this “occuption of a Muslim country ” even though its citizens may well end up being slaughtered.
Assalamu alaikum,
Thanks for the comment.
Foreign interventions in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Namibia have all proved disastrous.
Even examples like Kosovo that were stabilised by intervention have resulted in a long term military presence, which would be unacceptable in Libya.
The long and short is that, with their appalling track record, the UN, NATO, US, UK and EU have no moral authority to intervene militarily.
The people of the region should sort it out – either within Libya, or its “neighbours” who have an interest in preventing instability, but who also are not really neighbours – they are actually from one and the same heritage and part of one ummah. So we call upon the Egyptian army to join with their brothers in Libya and overthrow Gadaffi.
Wassalam, Abdallah
positioning. its a race to see who can take advantage of the situation first with the least amount of effort on their part, the u.s. or u.k.? the first to reinstall another puppet wins.
For a country in recession we always seem to find money to invade other countries. Charity begins at home fix ourselves before we tamper with others. Oh! I forgot , there’s a profit to be made.