by John Wight
On October 20, 2011, Libya’s
Muammar al-Gaddafi was brutally murdered by a mob of NATO-backed ‘rebels’,
after first being beaten and violated in the most barbaric fashion. History
leaves no doubt that not only was the Libyan leader murdered on this day but
Libya itself.
The regime-change crew who
dominate Western governments have a long indictment sheet against their names.
Since 9/11 they have wrought havoc and human misery on a grand scale in their
determination to reshape and own a world that has never been theirs to own.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya – Syria currently embroiled in a pitiless conflict for
its survival as a secular, non-sectarian state – this is the miserable legacy
of nations which speak the language of democracy while practising the politics
of domination.
Of the aforementioned victims
of Western imperialism, there is a strong argument to be made that Libya’s
destruction constitutes an especially grievous crime. After all, in 2010, the
year before it experienced its ‘revolution’, the United Nations Development
Programme considered Libya
a high development country in the Middle East and North Africa. In concrete
terms this status translated to a literacy rate of 88.4%, a life expectancy of
74.5 years, gender equality, and various other positive indicators. In
addition, Libya enjoyed 4.2% economic growth in 2010 and could boast of foreign
assets in excess of $150 billion.
Compare this record to Libya
in 2016. According to testimony provided
by US Army General David Rodriguez to the US Senate Armed Services Committee in
March, it is a failed state, with the general estimating it would take ‘“10
years or so” to achieve long-term stability in what is a “fractured society”’.
There is currently no single
government or authority in Libya whose writ runs in the entire country.
Instead three
competing authorities control their own fiefdoms. The internationally
recognized government is the Government of National Accord (GNC), led by Fayez
al-Sarraj, is based in the capital, Tripoli. There is also the Government of
National Salvation, led by Khalifa Ghwell, which is also based in Tripoli. The
third centre of power, meanwhile, is located in Tobruk in the east of the
country. It is headed by an anti-Islamist general, Khalifa Haftar, who leads
the Libyan National Army (LNA). Economically, oil revenues, responsible for 90%
of revenue under Gaddafi, have halved, violence is widespread, and since 2011
Daesh has managed to gain a foothold, though in recent months the terrorist
organization has come under huge pressure in its stronghold of Sirte from
forces representing the GNC.
The impact of the chaos that
has engulfed the country since Gaddafi was overthrown and murdered can be
measured by the flood of Libyans who have attempted the perilous journey across
the Mediterranean with the objective of reaching Europe. In the process untold
thousands have perished.
UN Security Council Resolution
1973, passed in March 2011, marked the end of the Arab Spring and the beginning
of the Arab Winter. The mass and popular demonstrations that succeeded in
toppling Tunisian dictator Ben Ali and is Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak
were not replicated in Libya. Instead, in Benghazi, where the anti-Gaddafi
movement was centred, Islamists predominated. There
was no nationwide mass movement in Libya, such as those that swept across
Tunisia and Egypt, and no popular support for toppling a government and leader
who presided over a society that enjoyed the highest standard of living of any
in Africa.
Loyalist Gaddafi forces were
defeated by NATO not the opposition forces emanating from Benghazi. Indeed it
was at the point at which the country’s armed forces were approaching Benghazi,
preparatory to crushing the uprising, when NATO intervened – based on the lie
of protecting civilians when in truth it was intent on regime change.
Gaddafi’s crime in the eyes of
the West was not that he was an authoritarian dictator – how could it be when
their closet ally in the region is Saudi Arabia? His crime in their eyes, it
was revealed in a tranche of classified Clinton emails,
released by Wikileaks in January of this year, was his intention of
establishing a gold-backed currency to compete with the euro and the dollar as
an international reserve currency in Africa. In this regard the then French
president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and then US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton,
were key actors in pushing for NATO intervention. Libyan oil was also a factor.
The classified emails prove
beyond any doubt that what took place in Libya was a monstrous crime for which
those responsible have yet to be held accountable. On the contrary, Sarkozy is
currently in the process of preparing a political return as French president,
while Hillary Clinton is favorite to win the race for the White House against
Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Of the two, it is Clinton who
was filmed clapping
her hands and laughing at the news of Muammar Gaddafi’s murder in 2011. It is
Clinton who pressed for the military intervention that ended in Libya’s
destruction. And it is Hillary Clinton who has the gall to present herself as a
moral giant in comparison to her rival for the US presidency.
The Libyan people may well
disagree.
John Wight is the author
of a politically incorrect and irreverent Hollywood memoir – Dreams
That Die – published by Zero Books. He’s also written five novels,
which are available as Kindle eBooks. You can follow him on Twitter at
@JohnWight1
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