SPY EYES

By Waqar Khan Kauravi

With the rebels knocking at the doors of Gaddafi Compound in Tripoli, the fate of Colonel Muammer Gaddafi and his cohorts seems to have been sealed for good. The storm that rose from the desert of Benghazi has swept along the Mediterranean coast line to the doors of Tripoli, duly supported by the greatest debtors of our times, the United States and company. While recalling the events that we have witnessed in past six months and the behavior of US led NATO alliance, one would rather become confused and perplexed. A few years back Gaddafi had wooed the west by opening Libya to the international community, everything looked hunky dory, Sarkozi, Tony Blair, Berlusconi and even Obama administration embraced the Colonel with accolades of Champion of Africa and the great Berber from the desert. Libyan oil tap was fully opened to keep the prices of oil in check and it appeared that the good old Colonel had developed comfortable relationship with the people across the Mediterranean lake and that Libya was to become a player in the new Africa scheme.

And suddenly, we all discovered that the Colonel was the worst thing that had happened to entire coastline of North Africa, and had to be ousted at the first God given opportunity, and in this new game of establishing a bridgehead in North Africa, even Al Quaida was welcome to become a bedfellow of Obama, Sarkozi ,Cameron and Rasmusen. While one should congratulate the Libyan people for getting rid of Gaddafy’s 42 years of rule (despite a per capita of 14000 USD and good social system,42 years monochrome of Gaddafi was too much for the Libyan people and probably they got bored with his idiosyncrasies),one would wonder at the mood of the US led coalition and her ability to keep the world preoccupied in the business of war.

On April 26, 2011 Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya of Global Research described the Libyan War as,“Plans to attack Libya have been longstanding. The imperial war machine of the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and their NATO allies is involved in a new military adventure that parallels the events that led to the wars against Yugoslavia and Iraq. The war machine has been mobilized under the cover of “humanitarian intervention.”In fact what the Pentagon and NATO have done is breach international law by intervening on the side of one of the combating parties in Libya in a civil war that they themselves have encouraged and fuelled. They have not protected civilians, but have launched a war against the Libyan regime in Tripoli and actively assisted the Benghazi-based Transitional Council in fighting the Libyan military”. As we analyse the conduct of military campaign against Libya, one is shocked to find the blatant use of classic Chankia theory, the enemy of my enemy is my friend as well as courting people and groups you have put on the terror watch list. Richard Spencer while reporting from Tripoli in the   Telegraph remarked far back as March this year in his article, Libya: the West and al-Qaeda on the same side concluded that, statements of support for Libya's revolution by al-Qaeda and leading Islamists have led to fears that military action by the West might be playing into the hands of its ideological enemies. Was this a deliberate attempt to insult the Islamic World as well as convey a message of impotency of the developing world to do anything against the wishes of the west or, it was a classical play of Chaos theory to create mayhem in the Middle East and North Africa to set a stage for unfolding of a new game in Africa and the Islamic World. It may be difficult to analyze the entire spectrum of Chaos game being played(as public sentiment of the Arab spring is a reality and cannot be labeled as a conspiracy of the west),one thing is certain, such games have been recently played in Iraq and the Af-Pak region, where Blackwater and CIA played the dirty game of dividing West Asia along sectarian lines, no wonder  the TTP in Pakistan had a clear stamp of RAW-MOSSAD-CIA trio on its royal backside, when it unleashed a reign of terror in FATA,KPK and rest of Pakistan. Pakistan was made into a friend and foe simultaneously.

Is Libya the end of US led coalition operations in the region or the start of Chaos in Africa? This is a million dollar question. Libya is an ideal bridgehead into Africa as it sits on a piece of land with geostrategic significance. It allows the oil tap to remain open and the quantity manipulation against any oil related initiatives by Middle Eastern Arabs, Iran or Venezuela. It keeps the entire Middle East and their leadership guessing and perplexed with a hidden message, you may be next. It limits strategic space for the Rise of the Rest (China, India, Russia etc). It allows the intelligence apparatus of CIA,MI5,NATO etc to establish a foothold in Africa and initiate new games in Sudan, Algeria, Egypt, Central Africa and rest of Africa south of equator. Finally ,it gives a shut up call to the common American and European (fed up with the Long War and poor economy), urging him that the white man was busy in important issues abroad and domestic worries were trivial and nonsensical.

Is the Transitional National Council going to listen to US led coalition’s suggestion for a post war Libya or go independently on solo flight? I have a hunch that Libya’s war will drag on as we witness fishers between the US led coalition and the Transition Government led by rebels grow into a wider chasm.  The Telegraph reported on 22^nd August about Mahmoud Jibril’s address to the Libyan people, speaking on the Libyan opposition's dedicated television network, Ahrar TV, the chairman of the Transitional National Council issued a statement in the early hours of Monday proclaiming the end of the Gaddafi regime and a new beginning for Libya."Today, all Libya's people are allowed to participate in the building of the future to build institutions with the aid of a constitution that does not differentiate between a man and a woman, sects or ethnicities." Jibril said. He added: "Libya is for everyone and will now be for everyone."

Let us hope that the Holy month of Ramazan brings glad tidings to the people of Libya and they are able to distinguish between friend and the foe in this entire game of Chaos.