"Concern" For Democracy Masks Western Greed For Libya’s Oil Wealth

The imperialist have never forgiven or trusted the government of Gaddafi for overthrowing the monarchy and nationalizing the oil.
And this is the historical and economical account that the West wants to settle with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

[Global: Libya]

Who are the forces that oppose the standing government of Muammar Gaddafi and what is the historic position of his government with respect to progress and development to liberation and self-determination?

And what is the character of the opposition that has control in eastern Libya and the city of Benghazi? Is it just a fluke or accident that the rebellion started there in Benghazi which, incidentally is just north of Libya’s richest oil fields as well as close to most of Libya’s oil and gas pipelines and it refineries and its ports? Are we watching an imperialist plan of further dividing up of a North African
state?

At this time, it would be important to understand the things that are being said and the things that are not being said. We need to consider the danger of imperialist military intervention into the region. For this option poses the greatest threat to the people of the region and their freedom.

It must be noted that Libya is very different form Egypt in many historic and political reasons. For, the Egyptian political leader Hosni Mubarak has always been an imperialist puppet and harlot, while the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had allied himself with countries and movements that were fighting imperialism.

On taking power back in 1969 through a military coup, Gaddafi nationalized Libyan oil; he used much of the revenue of oil to develop the Libyan economy. From that point no one could deny that life had improved for large sections of the Libyan people.

Gaddafi’s defiance and independent position had earned him enmity of the Western world. The US actually launched a number of air strikes on Tripoli the capital and Benghazi back in 1986 that killed over 60 people; among the people killed was Gaddafi’s toddler daughter.

After the attacks against the Gaddafi government there was the devastating sanctions that were imposed by both the US and the United Nations. This inflicted heavy damage on the Libyan economy. 

In 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq and pretty much flattened and steamrolled almost all of Baghdad under a bombing campaign called “shock and awe;” as if it was some sort of game. At this point Gaddafi tried to ward off further threatened aggression against Libya by making big political and economic concessions to the West–in particular the U.S.

Gaddafi was to open the Libyan economy to foreign banks and corporations; he was to agree to IMF demands typically called “structural adjustment,” meaning, privatizing many state-owned enterprises and thus, cutting state subsidies on very real necessities like that of food and fuel.

So the Libyan people were to suffer the same high prices and unemployment that underlie the rebellious struggles that have taken place all over North Africa and the Middle East and that has emerged from the world wide capitalist economic crisis.

There can be no doubt that the struggles that are sweeping the whole region for political freedom and sovereignty and economic justice and development have also have found a home within the Libyan people’s social discontent. There can be no doubt those conditions have been the bedrock of discontent with the Gaddafi government, and thus stirred and encouraged a substantial section of the people. 

Yet, many of the people being promoted by the Western media as leaders of the opposition against Gaddafi have been long time representatives and vehicles of imperialism. On February 22 the BBC first showed footage of crowds in Benghazi pulling down the Green flag of Libya and hoisting the flag of the overthrown King Idris, who was a lackey of U.S. and British imperialism.

At this time, Western media have been basing reports on supposed “facts” provided by the exiled groups called the  “National Front for the Salvation of Libya” which is and has been financed and trained by the American CIA. All we have to is just Google search this group’s name to see references about its relation as a CIA front.

The hostile declarations of U.S. media are not even disguised. On February 23, The Wall Street Journal declared that, “The US and Europe should help Libyans overthrow the Gaddafi regime.”

However, there were no such talk about violents regime changes in Egypt, Tunisia, South Yemen, Saudi Arabia or Bahrain. The U.S. has been trying to get the masses of people in those states off the streets.

There has been no talk about U.S. or Western intervention to help the Palestinian people of Gaza when thousand of people there have died from Bombs made in the U.S., blockades, and the invasion by Israel. In Egypt, the revolution was arrested midway when the U.S. intervened through the Egyptian army to prevent the coming of a government that would condemn the policies of settlements and land grabs of Arab peoples.

While Libya is Africa’s third largest oil producer, it has the continent’s largest proven reserves; 44.3 billion barrels. It is a country with a relatively small population of about 6.5 million people. Western oil companies are salivating over the oil riches. This is how the Western industrial classes see the popular uprising there–it is this that underlies their bogus “concerns” over the welfare of the Libyan people. It must be understood that getting concession from Gaddafi were not enough for the imperialist and their oil barons. What they want is a government that they own lock stock and barrel.

The imperialist have never forgiven or trusted the government of Gaddafi for overthrowing the monarchy and nationalizing the oil.
And this is the historical and economical account that the West wants to settle with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The Western and American concern about the rights of the Libyan people is only a sacrilegious and blasphemous mask for oil greed and profits.

For the people of Libya and North Africa, and the larger Middle East, history is on their side, but, not time.

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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