Libya: Sacrificial lamb of West’s double standards

are genuinely unimaginable.
Even the clashes between Israel and Palestine cannot be understood by a mere mention of the demand for land.
This never ending stand-off has transcended to the younger generations who believe going to school is secondary to fighting the Jews– they rate each other by the number of wars they fought against one another.
A mere conversation I had recently with a Lebanese national was a mirror of the deep seated anger in the Middle East and their bitterness against the Israelis and their Western allies.
This Lebanese could not imagine one asking whether Israelis were sitting on their rightful land since the question was already an insult to the Lebanese, it’s like denying the Holocaust in front of the Jews or demeaning Che Guevara when your obvious audience will be the Cubans.
This has seen foreign policy of major superpowers becoming foray ploy to destabilise zones of strategic interests to the UK, USA, France and Belgium.
What is Africa’s position on the Libyan issue? What are the gatherings at their summits contributing?
Can Gaddafi be saved or should he be saved, the Big Brother Orwellian situation he had been portraying for more than four decades make it a very uncomfortable path for fellow African leaders to tread upon?
Gaddafi has built his rule on a cult of personality and a network of family and tribal alliances supported by largess from Libya’s oil revenues.
For starters, Gadaffi gained control of Libya in September 1969 through a coup, he ruled the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya popularly known as Libya through a hard fist and his relationship with the West has been characterised by ups and downs.
On May 2007, the then US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice announced that the US was removing Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and would soon resume normal diplomatic relations with what they considered a pariah state for years.
A Scottish court, convening in the Netherlands for reasons of neutrality, connected Libya to the 1998 bombing of Pam AM Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people on board.
In 1989 Gaddafi’s government was also implicated in the 1989 bombing of a French passenger jet over Niger in which 171 people died.
In 1986, Libya sponsored bombing of a Berlin disco popular among US serviceman, killing two US soldiers.
Libya is a country with a geographical space which can be said to be slightly larger than Alaska state and the GDP per capita averages of US$12 300 and gained its independence in 1951.
One might wonder why it had stirred a lot of interest to the international community than what was experienced with the demise of the Tunisian and Egyptian leaders.
It is worth speculating why the air raids in Libya have not been applied in Bahrain and Yemen where their respective leaders have proved to be stubborn and unshakeable.
It could be an array of reasons why the aggression upon the North African country is unprecedented.
A lesson had to be sent to all the Middle East countries that whoever resists leaving power will do so at Western peril.
Such a policy approach will not work as other countries had already positioned themselves to resist the tactic, these countries include Iran and Saudi Arabia.
This is the opportune time for the West to discipline Gaddafi since he has been elusive and chicanery in his approach to the world.
The West had some of the dubious leaders who had been supporting Libya’s voodoo political systems since they were benefiting from Libyan oil.
Gaddafi was the only Arab leader who was vocal against the al-Qaeda, US is said to benefit from Libyan oil more than any other country in the world and its argued it benefits more than 40 percent of the North African mineral.
This could also be the opportunity for the West to stifle the dream of Gaddafi of seeing the United States of Africa coming to life.
This made him a nuisance to that part of the world since they do have their surrogates or proxy to bark on their behalf in the name of democracy.
It is equally true that some of the African states had been willing to sing for breadcrumbs.
All this does not mean that Gaddafi was right in his approach, his dictatorial tendencies were apparent but what irks most is he did all this in the face of White House, Elsyee Palace and No 10 Downing Street.
Gaddafi was never a darling to the west but he was quite naive to misunderstand how the west could deceive him.
Every time he appeared on those international forums with African garb was definitely distasteful to them.
He forgot to appreciate that there were elders in the mould of Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe, Sam Nujoma and Kenneth Kaunda that chose to go it alone.
His argument was that maybe since he came to power earlier than some of these stalwarts, he was senior to them.
Gaddafi was blowing hot and cold when it came to his personal policy towards the county.
He preferred the role of a mediator in any crisis which involved Zimbabwe but probably his Arabic language was a mouthful to foist upon Zimbabwe in settling domestic differences which saw Thabo Mbeki with his Zimbabwean fluency becoming an obvious choice.
When Condoleeza Rice announced removal of Libya on the sanctions list, it was a game plan to avoid a face off with Gaddafi so that he was to help the Washington government to deal with Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.
The chickens were definitely bound to come home to roost on his doorsteps. It was a matter of time.
In the midst of opposition from his fellow nationals, Gaddafi chose to blame the al-Qaeda for the mishap hoping to receive sympathy from the West.
He might have misinterpreted George Bush’s tone when he invaded Iraq on “whether you are with us or you are with the enemy”.
Gaddafi thought that by lambasting Osama bin Laden, he was automatically a darling of the West.
Only a week ago, UN voted to authorise military action against Gaddafi.
Can one say that for all the years he had ruled Libya, the past one-month warranted such a swift action, obviously the template was there to deal with Gaddafi?
Going forward, the aggression against Gaddafi expected to last for a long time period as compared to what we witnessed in Egypt and Tunisia.
Firstly this is because Gaddafi will be too proud to be defeated in front of the world which he always tried to convince that he was the best ever leader to grace the continent.
His posture at African gatherings smacked of an invincible leader who was looking forward to head United States of Africa since he had proved for almost 41 years that Libya was becoming too small for him.
Secondly he is aware of developments in his neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia knowing well that he has been a target of the biased Hague’s International Criminal Court.
The West’s double standards are with us to stay and as the aggression towards Libya is reaching its height, no one is mentioning the economic implications.
It will take only an average of a fortnight to proffer their supposed economic medicine to the economy they are busy tearing apart in the name of protecting civilians.
Quote of the week: “It is a good rule to face difficulties when they arise and not allow them to increase unacknowledged” Edward W Ziegler.
Thank you and be blessed.
l Christopher Takunda Mugaga, Head of Research, Econometer Global Capital, [email protected], +263 772 340 353, +263 776 266 062