Gaddafi out; another Western puppet to take over?
Posted by John, August 22nd, 2011 - under Civil war, Egypt, Europe, Libya, Middle East, NATO, North Africa, Revolution.
Across the Arab world people have risen up against their dictators. In Egypt and Tunisia mass movements successfully overthrew seemingly stable US backed tyrants.
In Syria months of murder from the regime have not stopped the demonstrations for freedom.
In key US Gulf ally, Bahrain, Saudi troops have come in to help the regime suppress a popular uprising. In Yemen the protests and fighting continue.
The Arab spring was and is a movement of the Arab masses.
That too is how it started in Libya. The rebels tried to win over their compatriots. But because of tribal loyalties and state largesse Gaddafi had some support and his forces looked as if they would defeat the resistance in Benghazi.
The shift of the rebels to NATO was the decisive point, turning the Arab spring into a civil war between a local dictator and Western imperialism.
Western imperialism has now won.
That victory has to be seen in context.
For the US Libya is not the key to the Middle East and North Africa. Israel as the US attack dog in the region holds that title. But in terms of Arab countries, Egypt more rightly wears the crown. It has the potential to undermine the whole imperialist edifice in the region, if the revolution continues and deepens.
The US does not have control of the revolutionary process there, but the Armed Forces Council represents a stability (especially with Israel) that the US supports. The Muslim Brotherhood represents a stability the US could support. They may well win any election if the revolution does not flare up again.
For the revolution to win its initial demands for freedom and food, for jobs and justice, there will need to be a second revolution, an event that would both challenge US influence and control and that of the local bourgeoisie.
There are some signs that might be occurring. Calls by the left for a second revolution have been receiving some support. There have been strikes, the formation of independent unions and big protests against Israel.
Whether the revolution deepens remains to be seen.
Just as the US is trying to adjust to the new reality in Egypt and produce an outcome that best suits its interests, so too in Libya for Western imperialism, especially the European powers.
However it is too early to say if a Western puppet will assume power in Libya. The rebels are united in their opposition to Gaddafi. That may be their only point of agreement.
Second there may be no material or political improvement in the lives of those who fought against Gaddafi or supported his downfall.
Third, events in Egypt or elsewhere in the region might overtake ‘the revolution that wasn’t’ in Libya and show an alternative way forward, one in which the Arab masses run society themselves.
No to Gaddafi. No to NATO. Yes to the masses in Libya and across the region.
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Comments
Comment from Auntie Rhoberta
Time August 23, 2011 at 11:42 am
Who are the non-Al Qaeda, non-monarchist, non-Western puppet ‘rebels’?
Comment from Wendy
Time August 23, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Ross, this kinda demeans the people. Are you saying they’re capable of overthrowing a dictator but too stupid or too manipulated that they can’t govern themselves?
That’s a tad imperialist I reckon. You telling them poor dumb Arabs that they’ll just accept another ‘puppet’ – like they can’t decide their own governance.
Using your logic, Aussie’s choose neo-liberalism. Hey, here’s a notion buddy: why don’t you lot get rid of your puppet woman leader, leave the ANZUS Alliance, quit your peacekeeping roles, find your own oil and stop buying from Saudi Arabia and become a workers paradise?
What’s stopping you?
Comment from Ross
Time August 23, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Gadaffi is no angel but the West have no right to invade his country and set up their own puppet.The Tamils need help but none mention the 40,000 + killed in 2008-9 by the Sri Lankin Govt.
There is another reason why they went after Gadaffi.He was in the process of creating an gold coin that all of Africa could use.He was also going to dump the US$ and make gold the trading currency for oil.
Saddham tried to use the Euro instead of US $ when selling oil ,so he had to go also.
Wendy.No one is a threat to Israel since they have 300 nukes and the means to deliver them.
Comment from Wendy
Time August 23, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Some facts Ross. They are real useful things.
1. The West hasn’t invaded Libya. NATO has launched air attacks, but there is no invasion. You are wrong.
2. Which country/s do you propose should have helped the Tamils? Not Uncle Sam, that’d be imperialism wouldn’t it. That’d be western invasion. So no USA, UK, NATO or UN – who does that leave: India? I kinda dare you to suggest that.
3. Gold coin? All of Africa? Are you from this planet? Gaddafi is not, and has never been, an influence in sub-Saharan Africa. Name one country who publicy said they would move from the Greenback to a Libyan gold coin? Just one. And name one African country that would give up its sovereign cuurency? The Rand, the shilling, the dollar – which country was publicly dissolving their economy to Libya? Kenya, the powerhouse of East Africa? Ethiopia, with an emerging economy? The booming South African economy? Egypt, which is estranged from Libya? I’m cracking up over this buddy.
4. Saddam ‘went’ over the dollar? What a fool. It was over oil, hegemony, power. The USA couldn’t give a fig about Iraq and the dollar – it’s the EU and the greenback. Where do you read this stuff?
5. Never mentioned Israel but there are threats to them – the madman in Iran, the butcher in Syria, the terrorists in Lebanon, the puppets in Jordan.
You need to find a library real quick.
Comment from Wendy
Time August 23, 2011 at 8:21 pm
PS > You advertise Subway on your homepage? The food of the American war criminals? The food of capitalism and chain stores and crap pay for workers and food sourced from exploiting third world farmers????
I would have thought you’d boycott these capitalist American industries – or just Jews get the boycott, do they?
Comment from John
Time August 23, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism. That argument is the last refuge of the Zionist, unable to defend their racist regime with concrete argument. Zionism ‘gets the boycott’, just as apartheid South Africa ‘got the boycott’. These were responses to calls from the oppressed. I am looking forward to American workers fighting back even more and calling for boycotts. Simple really, but a simpleton like you, Wendy, won’t ever get it.
.
Comment from Ross
Time August 23, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Wendy,the US/NATO have been using drones to bomb fishing boats,houses and Libyian public buildings.The CIAeda have been in there with mercenaries plundering the country.NATO planes have been bombing the crap out of the place.I call that an invasion.
The analogy of the Tamils is that if the Libyians needed saving are not the Tamils fo equal worth?
Gaddafi had half the gold reseves of Britian with 1/10 th their population.Had he started a move away from the US$ it would collapse faster than present.The trading of oil in US $ keeps it propped up.
Iran is no threat to Israel and CIA say this in their reports.They have not one nuke or the capacity to create one.
If you want to get educated, see Global Research http://globalresearch.ca/, Max Keiser on Russia Today,Gerald Celente , Webster Griffin Tarpley or Alex Jones on info wars.
Comment from Michael Karadjis
Time August 23, 2011 at 10:12 pm
I certainly don’t mourn Gaddafi, but while everyone is calling this NATO-led entry of the rebel army into Tripoli a “revolution” and a victory for the Libyan people, I think the case has to be made, not just stated. For the last 48 hours I have heard journalists say, and read journalists write, that the masses in Tripoli have either risen up with the rebel entry, or at least come out to celebrate with them. There are several million people in Tripoli. Yet every piece of video footage I’ve seen, every great photo collection I’ve seen, shows between 1 and 20 people in them, nearly always people holding up guns, ie, the rebels who entered from outside. I don’t doubt they have popular support in Benghazi, Misruata or wherever they came from, but there is simply not a scrap of visual evidence that they have been welcomed by people in Tripoli. None. If someone can provide some, I’m happy to change my view. Seems to me the masses in Tripoli took the wise view that they would neither die defending the devil they do know (especially with NATO bombs dropping all around them to convince them of this), but neither to rise up and die for the devil they don’t know and their NATO allies.
Comment from MarianK
Time August 24, 2011 at 7:17 am
Remember how easily the Taliban was toppled with superior Western firepower? Then Saddam Hussein? Pity about the 10 years of war that’s followed. At worst, this will Libya’s fate, and at best, they will be forced to accept a puppet regime that will turn Libya into a neo-liberal paradise with massive inequality gaps.
And Wendy, why assume that the Tamils in Sri Lanka wanted Western firepowere to help them? What they wanted was RECOGNITION of the justness of their cause. If they’d had that, they could well have brought the conflict to a point at which a ceasefire could have been declared and both sides brought to the negotiating table.
Instead, they were outlawed as terrorists by the international community (i.e the West) – and that was the beginning of the end for them.
We gun-toting Westies never seem to learn do we?
Comment from Ross
Time August 22, 2011 at 10:39 pm
Just see who takes control of Lybian oil.The West and NATO will find another puppet who will betray their own people,just like here.