Libya’s Nato-led ‘revolution’ that toppled Muammar Gaddafi was one of the lead stories of the past year. It is also a story which quickly fell off the prominent parts of the news pages with the demise of Gaddafi and the capture of his son Saif-al Islam. But the story is not dead. Last week, armed men from two of the prominent militia from Zintan and Misrata, when attempting to free one of their own who was imprisoned on suspicion of theft, clashed with a force that represents the Tripoli-based National Transitional Council (NTC). These two sets of militia and several others that prowl the desert and oil-rich nation have an exaggerated sense of self importance because they believe they shouldered the greatest burden of toppling Gaddafi. They are a law unto themselves. They harass locals at will and disregard the edits of the NTC for the same reasons above. They despise the ‘gate crashers’ from Benghazi who make up the bulk of the NTC. NTC is recognised by the so-called international community as the legitimate governors of Libya. That is a summary of the chaos that erupted in the aftermath of the demise of Gaddafi. With the cat dead, the rats (remember Gaddafi called them that) are now having a free reign. The central authority is overwhelmed. The armed gangs are not willing to give up their new found authority. Nato which supported them has left to go back home and sort out economies that are failing and falling into debt with massive unemployment. Obama will have to concentrate on his re-election which equates to putting the economy right and creating jobs within the space of months. Share This Story 3 Share What this means is that Libya on its own will most likely degenerate into an Iraq or at worst a Somalia like situation where tribes in the absence of a strong central authority and national army, partition and rule over portions of the once thriving country. In a report by Tony Karon of Time.com, there is fear that Libya might descend into a civil war. He quotes former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield as saying the “freedom (in Libya) is getting messy.” What is happening in Libya is the hangover that afflicts a society after the departure of a strongman. People who previously knew no freedom get hold of it and misuse it. There is no limit to what they can do. And because strongmen undermine institutions and the constitution, to make them appear larger than life and a law unto themselves, when they are ousted, there is no law or worthy institution to sanction those who break the law –note the irony. So what you have today in Libya is Gaddafi’s ghost haunting a society over which the dead man lorded it, for more than four decades. But it is also the result of opportunistic and nonsensical experimentation of, as the Time puts it, “an approach hailed by US and Nato officials as a new model of ‘intervention-lite’ in which Western powers and Arab allies could help indigenous populations oust odious dictators with minimal commitment of blood and treasure.” Now the blood of the same indigenous people is on the verge of flowing relentlessly while companies from the US, France, UK and Italy take care of the oil and other treasures of Libya for their own gain. The real purpose of the ‘help’ Nato offered to the revolutionaries is now much clearer. With the militias at each others necks, the waters will be troubled. Then our friends from Nato saunter in and catch their fish. It reminds us of a (Negro Spiritual) which went: “Freedom isn’t free/ you’ve got to pay a price/ you’ve got to sacrifice/ for your liberty…” Libyans will now pay the price for their freedom as given to them by the West. Gaddafi must be laughing in his grave.
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