DaringMehring
23rd October 2011, 18:38
The transitional government leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil set out a vision for the post-Gadhafi future with an Islamist tint, saying that Islamic Sharia law would be the "basic source" of legislation in the country and that existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified. - AP article
We, France, and the UK bombed the hell out of the Gadhafi supporting locales, killing many civilians. The city of Sirte where he was killed, was reduced to rubble. Here is a picture of the destroyed town: http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/assets/images/content/sirte-bombed.jpg
Gadhafi was captured. If you watch the video, a mob of men manhandle him off to his execution with screams of "Allahu Akbar!" in a scene of a type that should give any secular person the creeps. You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJ6hfa6jKY
Of course, America has a fine tradition of allying with Mujahideen-types for its real-politik. It was already apparent that those elements were present among the rebels, along with tribals whose tribes were on the outs with Gadhafi, and various other forces. They committed racist purges of blacks during the civil war, because blacks were low-wage immigrant workers, because blacks "were hired mercenaries of Gadhafi," but mostly because they were intolerant, and could get away with it. Here is the documentation from Human Rights Investigations: http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/07/07/libya-ethnic-cleansing/ -- "horrific video footage clearly showing public lynchings" in the rebel capital of Benghazi, "terrified black men were paraded for the cameras," " beheadings of blindfolded prisoners," and so on.
Now, we see, the "transitional leader" aims to cater to those elements.
So progressive, our bomb-borne political "guidance!"
The minute the people of Libya themselves could not shake off Gadhafi, and our mass bombing and military assistance was proxied for their power, the whole thing became reactionary Imperialism -- a matter of us finding our best configuration for domination, not of the Libyan people figuring out their path to progress. Of course, whether this minute actually came is questionable -- I doubt we were interested in waiting around, rather, wanted to assure the new regime would be our puppet. The last thing that our foreign policy bosses want is an "Arab spring" that is out of our control. So we support Bahrain and Saudi Arabia against their uprisings, support Mubarak to the end, commandeer the struggle in Libya, etc.
We, France, and the UK bombed the hell out of the Gadhafi supporting locales, killing many civilians. The city of Sirte where he was killed, was reduced to rubble. Here is a picture of the destroyed town: http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/assets/images/content/sirte-bombed.jpg
Gadhafi was captured. If you watch the video, a mob of men manhandle him off to his execution with screams of "Allahu Akbar!" in a scene of a type that should give any secular person the creeps. You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJ6hfa6jKY
Of course, America has a fine tradition of allying with Mujahideen-types for its real-politik. It was already apparent that those elements were present among the rebels, along with tribals whose tribes were on the outs with Gadhafi, and various other forces. They committed racist purges of blacks during the civil war, because blacks were low-wage immigrant workers, because blacks "were hired mercenaries of Gadhafi," but mostly because they were intolerant, and could get away with it. Here is the documentation from Human Rights Investigations: http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/07/07/libya-ethnic-cleansing/ -- "horrific video footage clearly showing public lynchings" in the rebel capital of Benghazi, "terrified black men were paraded for the cameras," " beheadings of blindfolded prisoners," and so on.
Now, we see, the "transitional leader" aims to cater to those elements.
So progressive, our bomb-borne political "guidance!"
The minute the people of Libya themselves could not shake off Gadhafi, and our mass bombing and military assistance was proxied for their power, the whole thing became reactionary Imperialism -- a matter of us finding our best configuration for domination, not of the Libyan people figuring out their path to progress. Of course, whether this minute actually came is questionable -- I doubt we were interested in waiting around, rather, wanted to assure the new regime would be our puppet. The last thing that our foreign policy bosses want is an "Arab spring" that is out of our control. So we support Bahrain and Saudi Arabia against their uprisings, support Mubarak to the end, commandeer the struggle in Libya, etc.