Joseph Brian Madhimba
21 June 2011
column
By invading Libya, Western countries, led by Britain, France and the USA, have shown that they do not learn from history.
Rebels supported by aerial bombardments by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are fighting troops loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.
The conflict has dismembered the country with the government of Gaddafi controlling the west, including the capital,Tripoli,while the rebels own chunks of territory in the East, including the second city, Benghazi.
The war has paralysed Libya’s once viable economy and adversely affected oil production. .
A report by the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme estimates that Libya’s economy will shrink by about 20 per cent this year, after experiencing a growth rate of about 7 per cent in 2010.
Déjà vu
What is happening in Libya is a matter of déjà vu. We have seen the same scenario in Iraq.
The Western countries are still paying for their disastrous decision to invade Iraq on the pretext that the country had “weapons of mass destruction”.
They sent out a message to the whole world that Saddam Hussein had to be disarmed to make the world a safe place. Remember former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his preposterous “smoking gun” claim?
That turned out to be an unmitigated lie. The West invaded Iraq, toppled Saddam Hussein, killed thousands of innocent civilians and took control of Iraq’s oil resources.
They have created an imbroglio from which they are finding it difficult to disentangle themselves.
Equally shameful is the rush by British and American officials to get plum jobs in oil companies operating in Iraq.
Libyan resources
Now NATO countries, led by France, Britain and the United States are repeating the same double standards in Libya. They have told the world that they have invaded Libya to protect civilians against the forces of Gaddafi. But the fact of the matter is that they are attacking Libya to get rid of Gaddafi in order to instal a puppet regime that will make it easy for them to control Libya’s strategic oil resources.
Just like they did in Iraq,the western countries have butchered civilians, caused untold suffering and destroyed infrastructure in Libya. Note how American,British and French leaders are waxing lyrical about the effectiveness of their military aircraft in Libya. No doubt,the reconstruction of Libya will be a monumental task, requiring some kind of Marshal Plan.
As they did in Iraq,the western countries are hell- bent on destroying a whole civilization in Libya.
We see the leaders of former colonial powers, France and Britain are repeating what their ancestors did centuries ago in terms of subjugating the peoples of Africa and plundering African resources.
Their invasion of Libya shows that these countries are practising a new form of British and French hegemony in Africa.It has nothing to do with Libya’s internal political situation or protecting civilians. It’s about taking possession of Libyan oil and creating an emasculated satellite African state on the doorstep of Europe.
What crimes?
By the way,there is talk by the West of taking Gaddafi to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Now this smacks of hypocrisy.
What about the genocide and crimes against humanity committed by Western countries in Afghanistan and Pakistan where they are engaged in the so called war on terror? To refresh our memories, the United States has apologised for the murder of 14 civilians in a recent drone attack in Pakistan.
Palestinian struggle
Libya is also being punished because of its support for the struggle of the Palestinian people who are demanding the return of their homeland.
The West has accused Libya of supporting what they call terror groups. The fact of the matter is that what the United States and its western allies refer to as terrorism is an offshoot of the unresolved Palestinian question.
Israel,a staunch ally of the West, has, for decades, murdered and tortured Palestinians who have been demanding their homeland.
Moslems throughout the world are aggrieved by Israel’s ill treatment of the Palestinians. That sense of injustice against the Palestinians is accentuated by the fact that Israel is a country that came into existence by making Palestine cease to exist.
Israel’s land is not owned but occupied. Its population is a demographic replacement of the indigenous Palestinian people displaced by the influx of Jews who were escaping anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States.
Resolve Palestinian question
Western leaders sit in London, Paris and Washington, and pontificate about the causes of the radicalisation of Moslem youths to the extent that they are prepared to be suicide bombers.
The answer is crystal clear- the failure of the West to put pressure on Israel to reach a settlement with the Palestinians. If the West wants world peace, they must first resolve the protracted Palestinian question. It is incumbent upon Britain and France, in particular, to spearhead efforts for a lasting solution to the Palestinian issue. After all, the two countries planted the seeds of the Arab-Israel conflict through the Balfour declaration of 1917 and subsequently the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
The Balfour declaration, which was the brainchild of Lord Balfour, the British foreign minister at that time,unequivocally endorsed the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the British and the French decided to divide up Palestine and Lebanon.
African Union’s inaction
The African Union (AU) has shown that it is a mere cipher vis-à-vis the war in Libya. The AU is in deep slumber.
It is tergiversating on the war in Libya. A few African countries have made half-hearted critical statements while others have simply turned a blind eye as if to say the NATO attacks in Libya are acceptable and justified. But they cannot be condoned given this stage of human civilization Even more unacceptable is NATO’s attempt to justify the attacks on Libya on the basis of the nebulously crafted United Nations Resolution 1973. What has happened to the sovereignty of states and territorial integrity?
The African Union should wake up and smell the coffee. You never know the next African country to be targeted as a battleground for demonstrating the deadliness of NATO weapons.
Granted, some African countries have internal problems but we do not need Western countries attacking our countries,murdering our people and destroying our fragile economies. Come on, AU, take some concrete action or at least, say something with clarity on the war in Libya.
Surely, NATO and its sanguinary leaders are on the wrong side of history.
Joseph Madhimba is the Head of Department – Business Management at the Polytechnic of Namibia.
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The Nexus Between the War in Libya, Iraq And the Palestinian Question