The aim of the NATO-led bombing raids on Libya four years ago was to “protect civilians.” It was the start of the Arab Spring, and Western leaders believed that Libyans were in mortal danger from their long-term dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The multi-billion-dollar aerial war against him lasted seven months and, following his demise in Oct. 2011, the country was in utter chaos, with up to 30,000 people killed.
The deceit behind another disastrous Western intervention in the affairs of a Muslim state came into sharp focus in Tunisia this month with the murders of at least 22 men and women, mostly Western civilians.
Within a day of the atrocity at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, it was confirmed that the two terrorists responsible had been trained at a militia camp in Libya. Tunisian Security Minister Rafik Chelly said there were now so many militant bases in Libya that would-be killers could choose one according to which foreign country they came from.
The “Tunisian camps” are mainly in Sabratha, Benghazi and Derna. A vast arsenal of weapons is available, most left over from the Arab Spring, when the West supplied rebels with everything from rocket launchers to high-powered assault rifles. They have since been used by rival militias, including radical ones, to murder thousands more civilians in a barbaric period of ethnic cleansing.
Peace talks last month achieved nothing, as bombers from Libya's internationally-recognized government ran air raids over a Tripoli airport. The country may be forced to cease all oil production after suspected Daesh (the so-called Islamic State) militants attacked three oilfields.
The UN special envoy to Libya, Bernardino Leon, said: “Unless Libya's leaders act quickly and decisively, the risks to their country's national unity and territorial integrity are real and imminent. There are two options: a political accord or destruction. Destruction is not an option.”
Worse still, Libya is now a springboard for groups such as Deash to carry out atrocities in neighboring countries. The murderous siege of the In-Amenas gas plant in Algeria in 2013 was launched from Libya and northern Mali, which has been engulfed by a war of its own since the removal of Gaddafi. Many of the Al-Qaeda insurgents trying to take power there are armed to the teeth with Libyan weapons, and receive training in its vast deserts.
Mali was a flourishing democracy until tribesmen displaced by the fall of Gaddafi flooded the country. These included Tuaregs, who had made up a large part of the Libyan army, and radicals. Their violence rippled out into Niger, where looted heavy weapons are now in the hands of fundamentalist groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, which kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last year.
Motives against Gaddafi
Gaddafi was once rightly viewed as an international pariah linked with human rights atrocities and the sponsorship of international terrorism. However, he initiated a period of détente in the early 2000s, and Libya was slowly democratizing of its own accord.
Just as crucially it was opening for business, with hundreds of American, British and French companies moving into a country awash with energy wealth. A clear sign of its potential was its growing trade links with France, which were supposedly why Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed Gaddafi, his “Brother Leader” friend, to the Elyseé Palace for a state visit in 2007.
Now there are well-sourced allegations that Gaddafi was illegally paying Sarkozy millions in cash to fund his successful election campaign that same year. Sarkozy denies any wrongdoing, but an enquiry is underway, running parallel with others into alleged corruption.
This backs the view that the NATO strikes on Gaddafi were not in support of freedom and democracy, but were aimed at destroying evidence that might be used to incriminate Sarkozy. — Al Arabiya News
