Lessons for Sri Lanka from the Libyan experience

 

– by Shenali D Waduge –

It is not difficult to conclude that Western imperial powers are mapping out their war master plan for economic and political domination across regions. They are openly and covertly interfering in domestic affairs, they are now even openly arming opposition groups, their motive is to destabalize governments that do not follow their policies and their cohorts in crime, the media agencies are doing a splendid job of giving the print news to help the public form their opinion against governments and leaders. We are witnessing a digital brainwashing at its best and humanitarian intervention/R2P or rather imperial intervention appears to be the way forward.

(If Imperialists want) Insurgents can and will be trained (even against international laws): They make them – they can break them!

Contrary to all laws what took place in Libya and now taking place openly in Syria is the manner the West is not only training rebels but providing them arms and financial support as well as steering their attacks. This is the future template in future R2P situations and Asia needs to be alert.

Regime Overthrow – once planned does no detours:

If a Government is listed to be overthrown – no amount of compromising will change that decision. Forsaking the country and its citizens in order to appease will result in not only being considered a betrayer of the nation but the eventual enemy of the nation’s advocating regime change. These nations do not turn enemies into friends – their friends are treated as enemies. Saddam, Osama, Mubarak, Gaddafi share startling parallels.

The lies:

They say their concerns is not about regime change – but it is

They will say their concern is about deaths of ‘civilians’ providing verifiable proof about their deaths.

They will sell a different version to their plan to their people – these countrymen continue to be fooled.

They will say they would retreat once their R2P humanitarian mission is over – but they will not. Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Libya are all living examples.

‘Their’ reporters will provide the lies – the entire landscape will be changed according to what suits their plans, photos will be created, witnesses will emerge, video clippings are supposed to provide evidence. The media magic will do wonders.

Getting rid of the ‘Dictators’

When Gaddafi gave money to the Sarkozy election campaign, he was not a ‘dictator’, when Gaddafi struck deals with the West showering them with money, he was no ‘dictator’ – but he became the ‘world’s’ worst enemy and was hounded and unceremoniously deposed. Any democratically elected leader can easily be tagged ‘dictator’ and marked to receive the same fate as that of Gaddafi, Saddam and Mubarak.

Why were nationalist leaders like late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Jong-il of North Korea, Rafael Correa Delgado of Ecuador, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Bashar Al-Assad of Syria targeted?

Why were Sukarno of Indonesia, Salvador Allende of Chile, Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti, Manuel Zelaya of Honduras, Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala and Mossadeg of Iran successfully overthrown?

What were Gaddafi’s real crimes?

In the case of Gaddafi his fault was to challenge the captains of global finance. His list of crimes included:

• Advocating a welfare state (not for giant corporations but for people in need). Before the imperialist-orchestrated overthrow of Gaddafi, Libya was the highest living standard nation in Africa better than the rich Western-backed Saudi Arabia.
• Guaranteeing subsistence – all Libyans were provided free health care
• Under gender equality, UNDP ranked Libya as 52 (Egypt was 108, Algeria 70, Saudi Arabia 128)
• Resisting to join the US/NATO sponsored military alliance in the region (both Libya and Syria were 2 Mediterranean nations refusing to subordinate to US/NATO designs to control the Sea Basin and Middle East)
• Both nations refused to participate in NATO’s Operation Active Endeavor naval patrols
• Both nations refused to be a member of NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue military partnership which includes most regional countries: Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania
• Gaddafi refused to join the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), designed to control valuable resources in Africa, safeguard trade and investment markets in the region, and contain or evict China from North Africa (AFRICOM formed in 2007 has 49 countries signatory)
• Crime of promoting trade, development and industrialization projects at local, national, regional and African level – Libya played a lead role in connecting entire African continent by telephone, television, radio broadcast, distance teaching, telemedicine by establishing RASCOM (Regional African Satellite Communication Organization) so that Africa would have its own satellite and slash communication costs in the continent. (this was a blow to the annual $500m Europe was making from its satellite transmission lease). Aid to launch project was refused by IMF and World Bank and eventually Gaddafi put $300m, the African Development Bank $50m, the West African Development Bank $27m and 49 African nations launched its first communication satellite on 26 Dec 2007.
• Gaddafi’s crime was to maintain public ownership of its own central bank and authority to create its own national money. $30billion frozen by US Government belongs to the Central Bank of Libya.
• Gaddafi was guilty of standing between the Western policy of ‘divide and rule’. Gadafi wanted to create a United States of Africa while the EU wanted to create the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) region (but North Africa had to be cut off from rest of Africa on the principle of racism – that Africans of Arab region was more civilized than the rest of Africa)
• Gaddafi’s crimes including striking deals with BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China
• Planning to trade with gold.

Methods used to oust governments vary:

Preferred option is non-military – will get leaders to agree to neoliberal strategies of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) proposed by bigwigs of IMF and World Trade Organizations.

Countries would have to agree to allow their financial systems to be tied to network of global banking cartel. After much coercions Gaddafi agreed to a number of neoliberal economic reforms in 1983 which gave lucrative business investments to foreign companies – if national leaders disagree, the next option is the military one.

3 strategies were adopted on Libya:

1. Creating the ‘uprisings’ and backdrop ‘support’ for ouster of Gaddafi (Egypt and Tunisia carbon copy but became uncontrollable resulting in military rule)
2. Brutal crackdown of supposedly ‘spontaneous’ ‘peaceful uprisings’ – while there are forces to galvanize the peaceful protests there are forces to turn these peaceful events into violent ones to blame the targeted Governments
3. The New Spring – scenario of civil war, orchestrated chaos

What NATO did

The NATO Alliance flew more than 26,000 flight missions including 9,658 strike sorties. This pales in comparison to the U.S.-led “Desert Storm” Gulf War air campaign of 1991, which lasted less than 45 days and saw the international coalition fly over 100,000 sorties and drop 85,000 tons of bombs. NATO’s “Operation Allied Force” against Yugoslavia in 1999 lasted slightly longer at 78 days, in which more than 38,000 sorties were accomplished. UNHRC head is silent on NATO crimes nor are they ever investigated.

The real interests

Countries are targeted not without reason. If it is not oil it is natural resources, if it is not that it is geopolitical or strategic sealane for trade – countries are taken over because of commercial and political advantage (in that order).

US and NATO said their mandate was to protect the Libyan civilians – it turned out they were on a witch hunt for Gaddafi.

Protection of Libyan civilians does not entail bombing Libya

National leaders MUST NOT act as puppets

To become a real ‘ally’ and true ‘friend’, national leaders have to grant the West and the global financier’s FULL control of its economic, geopolitical and foreign policy. Translated this means completely foregoing national sovereignty and leaders who agree to that will be showered with all that meets their material desires until they are eventually discarded or even eliminated. Not only would their ‘friends’ have got tired of looking after them the entire country would look down upon them as ridiculing the nation and betraying future generations of natives – such leaders are destined to enter history books with hate. Therefore this option is nothing that national leaders should ever consider taking whatever pressures are brought upon them by the powers that be. The people are the best defense – get close to the majority populace that is where one’s safety is not by distancing from them.

Be wary of ‘unarmed’ protests

The evidence that the supposed ‘spontaneous’ ‘unarmed’ ‘peaceful’ protest demonstrations in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Libya were all nurtured orchestrated and armed from abroad collaborating with expat opposition groups, locally funded allies is something all targeted nations need to keep in mind. The template is being replicated all over.

Be wary of ‘Friends’ even ‘Family –

Having penetrated into the Gaddafi family, former UK premier was best of buddies with Gaddafi’s son so much so that in thinking the Gaddafi’s will not be hounded, the son divulged details which eventually was used against them and helped in facilitating the ousting.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi described former prime minister Blair as a ‘personal family friend’ and he had visited Libya many times since 2007. It was in 2010 that Saif claimed that ‘He’s (Blair) adviser to the LIA, the Libyan Investment Authority. He has some consultancy role.’ It was only after Blair’s visit to Libya in 2004 that BP signed a $900million deal with the Libyan National Oil Company. The rest is not hard to figure out just as how Sarkozy used Gaddafi money for his election campaign and thereafter disowned even knowing Gaddafi – Blair did the same.

Media’s role in overthrowing Governments

When people rely on information the power of media can never be underestimated. Only a handful would go the length to discover for themselves the truth the media relays. Thus, the media becomes a perfect tool to distort the truth. They can create just about any story. In the case of Libya, they reported Gaddafi was mass murdering – he was not, they reported Libyans wanted to get rid of Gaddafi – but they did not report that 1million Libyans (in a country of 6million) came out in support of Gaddafi.

We know how media lied on Iraq and Afghanistan and the information they withheld from the public. Can media be trusted to ever tell the truth?

Media reported Libya’s crimes but was totally silent on NATO’s 24 hour non-stop bombing indiscriminate bombings.

Media reports on crimes by President Assad’s troops in Syria but not a word gets said about Western-backed rebels imported and now scattered all over Syria.

How could a responsible media leave out that the ‘rebels’ in Libya were armed from the very first day (which categorically proves it was not a peaceful movement)

Why did media hide that the rebels were working hand in glove with Western intelligence?

Why did media not admit that Gaddafi’s government WAS NOT carrying out aerial attacks against protestors or even mass rape as they alleged.

Why didn’t media accept that 10,000 people were not killed in Benghazi by Gaddafi’s government but only 110 on both sides prior to NATO’s attack?

Did the Western news agencies along with Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya not lie and fabricate stories as they continue to do in Syria?

Why did the mainstream media conveniently omit to report on NATO’s non-stop air raids, killing people and destroying homes, hospitals, schools? On 8-9 Aug 2011, 85 died including 33 children in a city in Misurata from NATO’s deliberate targeting of residential areas and civilian infrastructure – why were these crimes not highlighted?

Why did media purposely describe armed rebels as freedom fighters?

We notice that ‘unarmed protestors’ has become a good tool to use as was seen repeated in Syria where allegations abound about mass scale killing of peaceful protestors and civilians committed by their own government.

Thereafter corporate media run the sensationalist, unverifiable ‘eye-witness’ reports that are meant to steer anti-government rhetoric.

Media misinformation was proven in the lies on the massacres in Houla and Hama, BBC ran a photo from Iraq claiming it was taken in Syria. Incidentally, the Houla massacre took place the day before Kofi Annan was to arrive in Syria and was obviously planned to embarrass Assad and we see similar episodes take place elsewhere too. These ‘massacres’ were all opportunities to justify ‘intervention’ the main goal.

Yet, after Libya it is obvious that foreign intelligence agencies are very much steering the rebel movements both in Libya and Syria.

In viewing what took place in Libya and now taking place in Syria and comparing it with the scenarios currently taking place in Sri Lanka it is time to draw parallels and to wonder who is target and who are helping as well as the likely scenario. Leaders, the Government, the Opposition need to now think which way they wish to steer the country – do they betray the people for their own personal survival (which is NOT guaranteed as examples foretell) by turning Sri Lanka to a client state or do they with the backing of the people use diplomacy to sail the odds to continue to maintain the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation. Either way Sri Lanka is in for hard times, not helped in the least by bandwagons of forces even within the Government who are out to personally profit from making whatever deals they can.