To my absolute dismay, what is happening with Libya is a complete remake of what happened in Bosnia. A quasi-instantaneous armed insurrection, followed by a civil war, followed by a no-fly zone, followed by a peace plan accepted by the "bad guys" and rejected by the "good guys" and now, it appears, followed by the very same Europeans seriously considering sending in "peacekeeping" troops. They even (re-)created a NATO kangaroo court to judge Gaddafi for his "crimes against humanity" and the rest of the crimes many rulers commit, but only some get prosecuted for. This is totally sickening and just goes to show that the entire tragedy of the war in Bosnia has been forgotten. Or is it that it was never understood in the first place?
The US Empire does not even make any real effort to avoid parallels between Bosnia and Libya. In fact, many imperial-fanboys openly do declare that "just like in Bosnia" the West should now do this or that. And why not? The war against Iraq was launched under the utterly ridiculous accusation that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and when that was proven to be a lie, the very same accusation, made by the very same people, was hurled at Iran. And nobody laughed. In fact, most people began seriously discussing this idiocy.
Following so many other former Imperial puppets (including Milosevic and Saddam!), Gadaffi is now demonized (though he has yet to be called a "new Hitler"). Well, I happen to agree that Gaddafi deserves a good deal of this demonization (just like Slobodan and Saddam did). Imperial puppets are inevitably deeply immoral thugs who are more than happy to kill, torture or massacre their own people. But does that really mean that anybody and everybody who opposes them is a knight in shining armor?!
Just look at the leaders of the anti-Gaddafi forces today: Mahmoud Jibril and Khalifa Haftar. They are high-ranking Gaddafi minions who turned their coats just on time to become "popular leaders"! Don't these former Gaddafi apparachiks remind anybody of, say, Franjo Tudjman?
Or look at the so-called "civilians" in need of "protection" while being armed, trained and lead by a toxic mix of Western special forces and Wahabi extremists. Does that not ring a bell?
I personally loathe Gaddafi. He is an utterly immoral megalomaniac, a Arab secular nationalist leader (I hate that combination). A former nationalist turned Soviet puppet, then nationalist again, then US puppet and now back to nationalist. This secularist clearly also fancies himself as some kind of Muslim leader with quasi-messianic wisdom to dispense to the masses.
Just as I always despised Milosevic, Saddam, Noriega and so many other buffoons who ended up being useless for the Empire and I have no respect whatsoever for Gaddafi. But that is hardly a reason to give a standing ovation to the next imperial puppets which are already being groomed by the Empire to succeed Gaddafi!
Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo are now colonial banana republics of the Empire (in Iraq things did not go as well for the Empire who broke its teeth on the local Shia resistance). Is that really the future which all those who cheer on the forces in Benghazi want for Libya? For Libya to become another Bosnia or another Kosovo (with a Camp Bondsteel, narcotics, prostitution and all)?
From the very beginning of the anti-Gaddafi insurrection I supported the rebellion hoping that it would finally boot this thug out of power and replace him with a reasonably democratic regime. But when I see these rebels asking for US and NATO military intervention I realize that Libya now has a choice between bad and worse. And yes, Gaddafi is bad, no doubt in my mind about this. But an Imperial intervention is worse, there is no doubt in my mind about this either.
And please, dont' give me the argument about the "heavy weapons". I heard the very same nonsense during the war in Bosnia. Heavy weapons? What heavy weapons?! Just like in Bosnia, the so-called "international community" has slapped an arms embargo on the entire country only to then proceed to arm the "good guys" to the teeth. So far, I have seen the "lightly armed" Libyan rebels using main battle tanks, APCs and even multiple rocket launchers! Heck - they even had at least one Mirage aircraft until they shot it down themselves over Benghazi (clearly, the simple folks were not aware of the fact that they had their own air force, however small).
And also, no crocodile tears about the civilians being killed. The folks currently "protecting" the Libyan civilians just killed over ONE MILLION Iraqis, so you will excuse me if I don't take their "humanitarian" credentials too seriously.
I am equally dismayed by those who constantly campaign to lionize Gaddafi like some kind of anti-imperialist hero. According to them, the "Great Socialist People's Libyan State of the Masses" was some kind of paradise on earth, with everybody living in large homes, enjoying great social services and in daily bliss. This is so ridiculous! While the leaders of the rebellion are clearly Western agents, there can be no denial that a big segment of the Libyan population hated Gaddafi's regime, if only because of its brutal crackdown on Islamic groups. Again, the fact that the US Empire is loathsome and evil to the core hardly makes Gaddafi a knight in shining armor!
Must we really be stuck in such nonsensical choices? Milosevic or Thaci? Omar or Karzai? Bush or Bin Laden? Why is it so hard to see that often both sides are equally evil and contemptible? How is a one prostitute better than another prostitute? Aren't they equally disgusting?
To be honest, I find myself rather isolated nowadays. To me, who followed the war in Bosnia day by day, minute by minute, what is going on in Libya is sickening. But even worse is the sense of hopelessness when I see most observers blindly siding with one party against the other, no matter how clearly corrupt their "good guys" really are.
And just as in Bosnia, its the simple folks, lied to by everyone, who will end up paying the real price of all for the vicious insanity of their leaders. Make no mistake here, Libya will turn into a typical US colony, with military bases, fast food franchises, prostitution, corruption and misery. And those few who will still persist in opposing such a wonderful project will end up being tortured, shot, disappeared and jailed.
One last expression of disgust in conclusion: the sheepishly obedient media. Just like in the case of the war Bosnia, all the reports and talk-shows feature only Western "experts" and "good" Libyans. When is the last time you saw Saif al-Islam Gaddafi being interviewed to make his case? Has anybody noticed that the "bad Libyans" have been ordered off the air?
Just like the arms embargo is totally one-side, so is the information blackout. And even when civilians are being killed in US/NATO bombings in Tripoli al-Jazeera correspondents seriously declare that "they don't know where the bodies found in the rubble came from"!. Who knows, maybe evil Muammar is keeping secret stores of cadavers of murdered dissidents to be dispersed at the location of any "humanitarian bombings" by the US and NATO?
If by now you are getting the feeling that I am pretty mad about all this you are quite correct. In fact, I am fuming at the mind-boggling stupidity of the world I live in. The war in Bosnia was a breaking point for me and I ended up loosing my career over it because I did not "howl with the wolves" (as the French saying goes). I can't say I regret any of what happened to me, really. But to see the exact very same bullshit happening a decade later once again really makes me mad.
So please excuse my foul mood.
The Saker
