Weighing in on Libya

Yes, this will be my first real post in a while! As I've said in my previous post, I've been pretty swamped with schoolwork lately, which leaves me a drained and jabbering dupe at the end of the day. So... Not different in any real sense.

As you have no doubt heard already, a UN-lead Security Coalition of forces (i.e: A US-lead embarkation of peer-pressured Western powers) began bombing Libya on the 19th of March in order to topple the Gaddafi regime. the Obama administration, with Kid Obama especially coming off as a "hip", young, Marxist wannabe-revolutionary, with ambitions of empowering "da dis'mpow'd masses" has been especially militant in communicating the necessity of US having a hand in "freeing" the Libyan people from their oppressive dictator, that they need democracy, a right to self-determination.

To give a bit of background to Libya and the conflict, Libya is a fairly sparsely populated country situated on the northern Africa coast, with a lot of unsettled desert in between. The population is six million, composed mostly of Arabs, with a large minority (1 million) of illegal Egyptians and sub-Saharan Africans. Muammar Gaddafi, long since a coup d'etat in 1969 has ruled Libya as its "Leader and Guide" in totality but recently has been facing strong opposition and civil warfare, especially emboldened by the recent Tripoli and Egyptian uprisings.  Another important factor with Libya is the fact it is houses the ninth largest oil reserves globally, and is considered a prime market for oil due to its proximity to Europe.

Two Good Mates in Simpler Times

In most cases, it is better the enemy you know. Indeed, Gaddafi may be a sociopathic, socialist blackmailing bastard, but he's familiar, and he has enough animousity directed at him in his region to act as a destabiliser of his power. An unforeseen consequence of USA's fighting tactics, to arm and equip a lesser evil to fight a bigger one or to rebel against it within the society. This diabolically backfired in the faces of the USA in the case of Osama Bin Laden, with the lesser evil triumphing over the greater evil, and becoming a great force in of itself. We should contrast this with the Mujahideen characteristics of the rebel fighters that the West are utilising in fighting Gaddafi, which lays down the framework for a potential Islamic republic to arise out of Libya in the near future. Not surprising, the liberal public distaste towards the Obama intervention in Libya is all but muted, a far-cry from the leftist reaction to Bush entering Iraq, a popularised meme.

Libya is a testament to the failure of African states. Libya, like most of Africa, a mix of different tribes and ethnicities in a continent saturated in ethnocentric tension, and to contrast with the heavy Arabic population, is served up with the added sprinkling of ideological religiosity of Islam, to add to the potential powder keg of potential tension sources.

This Libya intervention should also serve as just another example of agenda-laden America world police at work. The same state that cannot capture and kill Osama, the ever omniscient Road Runner to the US armed force's absurdly over-elaborate, technologically proficient, but ultimately incompetent and self-defeating Wile E. Coyote, felt it prudent embarked on another irrevelant conflict whom costs will be naturally be absorbed by the tax-payers of this UN coalition, true to form to the doctrine of socialising costs and privatising profit. In essence, the major Western powers all involved in this conflict, France, England and the USA all report substantial debts, have no real involvement in the region, and are setting themselves up to have another potential Arabic Islamic state on the horizon, right over the ditch.