In These New Times

Allain Jules

Tortilla con Sal

9th september, 2011

No, it’s not some attempt at wit. It’s the truth. As all my articles on Libya have tried to point out, no one can take over a country as if they were weightless. Muammar al-Ghaddafi’s strategy is a winner. These days the media war is the main attraction. Knowing this, NATO makes sure to have media coverage on its side every time it bombs a town. That way no one mentions the destruction of basic services (water, gas, electricity, basic foodstuffs) which is, after all, a war crime.

The new spin, according to which NATO will stay in Libya so long as Muammar al-Ghaddafi is alive, is the NATO leaders’ principal mistake. This has been clear since the beginning of the conflict, when the Libyan leader wanted to negotiate. Now, they talk about that as if it were fake or  a ruse. Well, the key to this conflict is not Muammar al-Ghaddafi, but the Libyan people. Unfortunately, while the Libyan menu may be mouth-watering, one should pay attention to the ingredients. By setting out to fight on their southern front based on stale prejudices, deceitful double-dealing and a thirst for oil, NATO’s member countries scuttled themselves from the outset.

The boundary lights on the mental horizon of the psychologically unfit individuals who brought war to Libya all blink al-Ghaddafi, al-Ghaddafi, al-Ghaddafi. If that is meant to be any kind of programme NATO’s leaders had better re-read their half-digested classical texts. Today, their speedy cries of victory look demonstrably like empty bluster. Even so, one hears journalists on television declaring in all seriousness that Muamamar al-Ghaddafi’s last bastion is about to fall and then the war will be over. One is dealing here either with outright ignorance or with downright propaganda.

While NATO is murdering civilians, bombing at full speed ahead, the mainstream media say nothing. These crimes against humanity are concealed, notably in Zliten where 85 civilians were massacred. Does one have to remind those who sent up cries of alarm and outrage following the Libyan government attack on Zawiya that NATO deliberately murdered Muammar al-Ghaddafi’s son, his son’s wife and three of their children? Where were were these journalists then? On Sky News, reporters lamented civilian casualties. Whose? Those of Benghazi’s raggle-taggle armed renegades.

What NATO’s leaders failed to foresee, hence their stubbornness, was the resistance of the Libyan people and of Muammar al-Ghaddafi. After 7 months, the world’s most powerful armed coalition has failed to beat a small population of 6 million. The confused pronouncements of Luis Moreno Campo, head of the International Criminal Court, NATO’s enforcer, mean nothing. To be credible Moreno Campo would need to head to the United States and arrest George W. Bush and his accomplices. Let him file charges to determine the guilt of NATO for its war crimes in Libya and those of its Benghazi sub-contractors.

NATO has lost the war because it is itself incapable of helping to reach a peaceful solution. Libya’s pacification can only come about through dialogue and the inclusion of the al-Ghaddafi clan in any eventual democratic outcome. It doesn’t need a science doctorate to work that out. But alas, NATO’s apprentice sorcerers have fooled themselves into thinking that killing or capturing Muammar al-Ghaddafi will change matters. By insisting on brute force, they’ll find out soon enough that Muammar al-Ghaddafi already has in place a plan for endless guerrilla war.

Taking into account that the Benghazi renegades are simply casual fighters, has NATO worked out who exactly is going to bring security to Libya? Once the renegade “doctors”, “teachers” and “students” go back to their normal lives, what will become of the rest?

By far the majority of these have not really seen combat, essentially strolling in to occupy targets opened up by murderous NATO bombardment. So one can see that nothing is over. Everything is beginning. As Muammar al-Ghaddafi pointed out yesterday, despite NATO’s multinational front, it is incapable of sustaining a long drawn out war given the looming crisis of usury in its member countries’ economies.

When one adds to this mess the discord within the NTC, the conflict in Benghazi between the rebels and NATO forces on which the mainstream media are silent, then no clear sky will dawn tomorrow. NATO poorly appraised their partner, the very NTC that made the West look stupid feeding them really outlandish lies, most notoriously the 6000 supposedly murdered by Muammar al-Ghaddafi as well as other untruths, since that one turned out to be hard to sell. All this will now cost NATO dear.

In truth, this elite clique, who think they can do anything they like, longing to impose their vision of society on the whole world, really have no idea of the quagmire in which they are stuck. Wanting to create in Libya a people-excluding democracy disqualifies them outright. In fact their real objective has been simply to eliminate an obstacle to their wheeling and dealing, the man who opposed their plunder of Libya’s riches. The UN is a sinister, perfidious organization. NATO is a terrorist organization. That’s all there is to it