Sunday 31 July 2011

Wither Libya?

Nato's Libya operation has panned out to be a virtually aimless pogrom of gratuitous violence. It continues to this day because the traditionally racist Europeans leading the operation do not care about the African Libyan lives being lost.

They know the operation is not leading anywhere but because it Africans dying they do not care to bring the conflict to the most sensible end - through a ceasefire and negotiations not a military victory by any of the sides.

The only side capable of military victory is the Gadhafi side but the Europeans have prevented that from happening prolonging the conflict. Despite my attempts to filter through the Nato propaganda, I still fail to see where a prolonged conflict, rather a negotiated solution, is in the best interests of Libya.

In fact, common sense tells me that prolonged conflict is in the interests of those bend on weakening Libya and removing her as a significant force in African politics. Libya has been the backbone of the AU which was slowly gaining assertiveness in international politics. Despite his off-the handle loose nut behaviour, the crazy colonel's money has been one of the nuts holding the AU's handle firmly in place. Removing the colonel is an obvious way of setting the AU back by several years if not decades.

Indeed the way the AU was treated in the whole saga suggests a deliberate ploy to humiliate the organisation.

An assertive and confident African continent is a threat to European countries whose economies are still dependent on colonial resources. It does not surprise me that the countries that led the onslaught on Libya had recently had problems which politicians in former colonies who refused to toe the line. France with Laurent Gbagbo and Britain with Robert Mugabe.

Dictatorship is no good and Gadhafi's dictatorship was among the worst, but the situation that Libyans are in now, is worse than Gadhafi's dictatorship. Not even Nato despite their bluster and bravado know what the future holds for Libya.

With the killing of a rebel general by rebels, everything is increasingly pointing towards sectarian strife. It would also have send a message to other defectors and planned defectors that they don't have a safe place to go. Defecting was probably not the wisest of decisions on their part. Defecting former Gadhafi allies should not expect to find a comfort zone among the long-standing opponents of Gadhafi. Life is not a Madagascar movie where a Zebra and a Lion can become the best of friends. If you have been opponents for life you do not become trusted buddies in the span of the moment it takes to say 'I am defecting'.

The TNF is a hodge-podge of long time Gadhafi opponents and defectors. As General Younnes death shows, the defectors were probably better off sticking with Gadhafi.