As Libya bleeds, the World does nothing

Mar 11, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
When the Libyan revolution commenced circa February 17, 2011, it came on the heels of the swift removal of Hosni Mubarak from Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from Tunisia, and the sustained pro-democracy movements in Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, and Jordan.
But the success of the Libyan revolution will be far from swift. In the cases of both Tunisia and Egypt, Western political juggernauts acted swiftly, with considerable arm twisting, as they already had a political iron grip on them, particularly Egypt, which receives the largest U.S. aid second to Israel.
Professor Haider Khan of the University of Denver posited that Libya’s political strongman Muammar Gaddafi has two choices: step down and let the political transition take place; or stay on the path of state terrorism and violence against his own people. The latter is the course Gaddafi chose to traverse.
At this time, there are no signs of Gaddafi stepping down. Gaddafi knows that Libya has the largest oil reserve in Africa, and Libya occupies a strategic geopolitical location with respect to the European Union.
A few weeks ago, former British Foreign Secretary Sir David Owen called on the UN Security Council to set up a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent Gaddafi from using the air force to bomb protesters in the streets of Libya. Owen suggested that the UN Security Council should take action on the same night that he issued the request; and to implement the request vis-a-vis providing authority to NATO in alliance with Arab states to block the Libyan air force from attacking demonstrators. This request failed.
Al Jazeera recently reported that Libyan dictator Gaddafi shut down most of the websites in Libya. To date, over 1000 peaceful protesters lost their lives through Gaddafi’s violent encounters with the protesters.
And as I write this piece, Associated Press (AP) reported that Gaddafi showered a hail of rockets and tank shells on the revolutionaries in Ras Lanouf, an oil port. In this AP report, Akram al-Zwei of the revolutionary town committee noted that “These are tough battles. We are fighting against four battalions heavily equipped with airpower, tanks, missiles, everything.”
As the revolutionary forces against Gaddafi appeal for help from the international community, precious little is happening. The UN set up to sustain harmony in the world, stands idly by vis-à-vis its lethargic Security Council, as Gaddafi’s battalions continue to massacre hundreds of Libyan civilians. Even as NATO met on Thursday (3/10/2011) to discuss the Libyan crisis, it claimed that it will not act until the UN issues a legal mandate.
And the U.S. Administration basks in the glory of its continuing rhetoric that Gaddafi’s government has no legitimacy, and should step down. Nonetheless, the U.S. would not take any concrete military action vis-a-vis a no-fly zone measure, claiming it would await the Security Council’s mandate prior to effecting any action; nevertheless, it was the U.S. Administration that invaded Iraq without a UN mandate in 2003, without good reason. Libya provides an abundance of reasons for international action; the crisis in Libya is no longer a national sovereignty matter; the fact that Libya’s refugees are now spilling into several countries makes the Libyan crisis ‘international’; and the UN can and must intervene.
And while the Libyan people are wary of having foreign ground troops on their soil, they welcome international assistance of other sorts, including military.
Previously, I wrote in my piece titled, The Middle East, the energy security playground of the Western World: “The big powers’ interest is about energy security, and they collaborate to sustain this interest when necessary; and they do so on the backs of ordinary people vis-à-vis their formidable support of autocratic governments in the region. Invariably, autocratic regimes in the Middle East have become a precondition and a tool for energizing and realising the big powers’ energy security interests….The U.S. with its incurable habit of boasting about its human rights record and presenting its political system as the bulwark and model of democracy globally remains stuck in bed with autocracy in the Middle East for more than half of a century, all in the name of energy security.”
Given the ‘international’ nature of the Libyan crisis, the U.S. and its Western allies have a moral obligation and a social responsibility to assist in fending off Gaddafi’s intense military violence against the Libyan people. It is really sad that as Libya bleeds, the world does nothing.
Prem Misir

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