President of Libya, Muammar Ghaddafi
By Khalid S Mtwangi
Recent history is replete with forced regime changes that have been initiated, engineered and invariably the assault is led by one or other of the Western Powers. That is Europe headed by the mighty bully, the United States of America (USA). While all of Africa and a greater part of Asia were under colonial occupation by the Europeans the USA was the kingmaker in so-called Latin America.
There was something called the Monroe Doctrine that was enunciated on December 2, 1823 and the imperialistic nature of the Doctrine was meant to keep their cousins in Europe out of the spoils in that part of the world. As a result Central and South America, as well as the Islands in the Caribbean became the USA’s play ground.
The rabidly right-wing quintessential cowboy of the screen, the late John Wayne (really, Marion Michael Morrison) led the cast of ravenous US industrialists who ravaged the region for what looked like an interminably long time. The El Caudillos of the region were quite happy to play ball with the Texans in their ten-gallon hats; and any one of them who did not was subject to regime change. Poor General Omar Torrijos Herrera (American literature calls him dictator) had not learned his lessons properly and he thought he could be his own man. He exploded up in the air as he flew into his hacienda.
Perhaps in recent history no region has suffered the spectre of interference in internal affairs as much as the Middle East. For a good part of the last century both the Europeans and the Americans (USA) simply would not let the people of the region run their own affairs. Lord Balfour of His Majesty’s Government made sure the Palestinian Arabs would become eternal refugees and cannon fodder for settlers from Europe who will have conquered Palestine. In fact they, with assistance from Europe and America, would wipe off the map homes such as those at Dir Yassin where, in 1948, every moving soul was eliminated.
The mass killing of the Palestinians continues to this day; yet the perpetrators, a very brutal genus, seek sympathy for what happened to them in Europe over a period of time. Inexplicably the presence of oil in the region has been, in its own way, a curse for the region.
A legend has it that the Masai believe all the cattle in the world belongs to them; so when they mount a raid into a Sukuma boma, for example, they are not cattle rustlers. They are only trying to retrieve what is rightly their stock irrespective of how the Wasukuma acquired that much head of cattle. They would do it in Crawford, Texas if they could. In similar fashion, considering the way they are ready to kill and maim without asking too many questions it would be logical to conclude that the USA lays claim to all the oil in the world.
Only that the Masai now are graduating from being purely pastoralists to some kind of farmers in areas far away from traditional Masiland. On the other hand the USA’s insatiable thirst for other people’s oil appears to become even more acute. Hence, the unabashed drive to change regimes in the Middle East.
The first to suffer that indignity was Prime Minister Muhammad Mussadegh of Iran who was removed from power and was arrested by the USA Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1953. He had committed a felony when he nationalised the oil industry in the country. In the eyes of the West that was pure robbery. The Shah of Iran (Shah-n-Shah or King of Kings, he called himself and the Americans helped him live the illusion) was installed back on the Peacock Throne. The multinational oil companies flowed back and resumed pumping Iran’s oil and ship it home.
The late Saddam Hussein, the undisputed ruler of Iraq, was sitting on one of the largest reserves of oil in the world. Second only to pliable Saudi Arabia. It happened that a band of so-called neo-cons, actually an assemblage of cut-throat war-mongers, through a cleverly cooked set of election results were able to enter the White House in Washington, DC.
At the apex of the group was Bw George W Bush and his assistant was one Richard “Dick” Cheney both of whom had had interests in the oil business for a long time and still do. They simply had to lay their hands on the oil in Iraq and in order to achieve that the rogue President of that country must be gotten rid of. By sheer quirk of fait the incident on September eleven (11/9/2001) must have been a godsend. On the other hand the timing could give credence to the conspiracy theory that it was an inside job to lend excuses to invade Iraq. It is not uncommon that people of some countries have been sacrificed on the alter of political expedience to achieve a certain end. Some historians quote Pearl Harbour during so-called World War Two as an example.
Lt Colonel Muammar Gadaffi of Libya has been a thorn in the side of the Western Powers ever since he took power from the illiterate King Sanusi of Libya in 1969. They did not like it when the Colonel nationalised the oil industry and in effect gave marching orders to the Western companies. And from there on he proved to be his own man to the discomfiture of the high and the mighty in those countries. Unfortunately though, the West have been successful in pinning responsibility on him for many incidents that have resulted in injuries and death.
The bombing of a discotheque in Germany provided an excuse for the rabid right-wing Ronald Regan to mount an air raid on Gadaffi’s residence. An innocent child lost her life as a result; yet there was no remorse from any one is the USA and certainly not from President Reagan. Indeed he boasted of having carried out what he called precision bombing.
No one in their right frame of mind would condone the Lockerbie incident where many innocent lives were lost.
It is claimed that an exhaustive investigation was conducted by European sleuths and the verdict was that Libya, and especially, Col Ghaddafi had ordered the bombing of the Pan Am plane. Libya suffered years of sanction that had been imposed by the West. In the end Col Ghadafi owned up to the incident and agreed to pay compensation to the victims and others. As a result sanctions were lifted and Libya was in away admitted back in the fold. However, it would appear that the West never fully pardoned him for that and other alleged misdemeanours. In the wake of the so-called Arab Spring the gloves are out and the West are determined to give the Colonel a knock-out punch.
In the first place resolution 1973 of the United Nations was passed at the behest of the West led by the United States of America which is adept at twisting the arms of the hapless nations. Yet again the Resolution certainly is being misused and violated to achieve the goal the West had set for themselves. Simply that Lt Colonel Muammar Gaddafi must be got rid of, killed if need it be. There can be no other interpretation of the incessant bombing of his dwellings which has again resulted in the killing of his grandchild, an innocent human being. In the context of that it never ceases to amaze how the military and the politicians in the West are able to explain away such killings which should rightly be interpreted as murder. They are adept at playing about with words to exonerate themselves for what are, in any language, murders of innocent people.
It would be correct to conclude that the UN resolution 1973 was a camouflage to carry out a regime change in Libya. No such resolution was sought in the case of Egypt and especially nothing in so far Bahrain was concerned. The latter of course is plying host to USA military bases and by a twist of inverted logic the killings in Bahrain are considered collateral damage. In the case of Libya what was initially explained as imposing a no-fly zone has now progresses into full time devastation of Libyan infrastructure and of course the people. Then again Libya being in Africa enters Senor Moreno Ocampo of the so-called International Criminal Court in The Hague. It would appear that the court has been set up specially to cow Africans into submission. For obvious reasons atrocities committed by Israel and the USA do not attract the attention of Senor Ocampo!
What NATO is doing now is to take sides in a civil war. It surely cannot be true that is what Resolution 1973 had allowed them to do. But then Lt Col Muammar Gaddafi simply had to be gotten rid of despite the consequences which include loss of innocent civilian lives. That he has lorded it over his people for over forty years is not for Europe or the USA to chef over.
Who is next?
Source: The African