EDITORIAL: Where is NATO as Libya becomes a failed state?
It is appalling that the Western countries—the very ones that rushed with heavy weapons to bomb Muammar Gaddafi out of power—are not on the scene as the country degenerates into a failed state. After bloody removal Colonel Gaddafi, there was celebration and anticipation, with the West, operating under North umbrella of the Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) branding it a liberation of Libyans from a brutal regime.
But, some African countries, especially Tanzania, were cautious towards the Libyan situation—refusing even to recognise the newly formed regime. Countries in Africa, which championed the liberation struggle in the Continent, viewed the new regime in Libya as an imposition. Today, looking at what is taking place therec now, one can understand why Tanzania didn’t rush to recognise the post-Gaddafi regime.
Libya has become the breeding grounds for deadly terrorist organisations like the so-called Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda and such other outfits—thanks to the power vacuum left in the wake of Gaddafi’s ouster.
Four years after Nato-backed rebels overthrew the colonel, the country slides further into chaos by the day, with two governments and parliaments allied to different armed factions fighting for control, while terrorist groups exploit the power vacuum to cause bloodshed.
Gaddafi was captured while holed up in a drainage pipe and killed shortly afterwards by rebel fighters during the 2011 uprising, following a Nato strike on his convoy as he attempted to flee the country.
Events in Libya
As one commentator in Mail & Guardian Africa, put this week: “Many commentators have wondered what Gaddafi would have to say about events in Libya, and the wider Arab world in general from beyond the grave, if it was possible to interview him.”
Some Western countries, which participated in the Gaddafi overthrow, have closed their embassies and evacuated their officials, citing insecurity. Which is to say, these countries have turned their backs to Libyans at a time when their help was still needed.
As a result of unsecured Libya, heavy weapons, which were bought by Gaddafi during his four decade-rule, have fallen into the hands of rebels and thugs, who are also selling these deadly weapons to terrorists in Somalia, West Africa and Middle East.
The terrorists who kill people in Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia or elsewhere have a deep connection with allies in Libya, according to reliable intelligence reports.
The Western countries had the bombs and a purported moral authority to oust Gaddafi, but they now lack any concrete plans to rebuild Libya. It is the same way they did in Iraq when they overthrew Saddam Hussein regime and eventually killed him by orders of a Kangaroo court.
Today, Iraq is the most dangerous country in the world, where suicide bombers kill hundreds of people daily. While we won’t claim that Gaddafi’s regime was the best that Libyans might have had, we are tempted to question the motive the West had in bombing Libya.
Was it a liberation battle, or just a self-presented opportunity to pay back to Gaddafi, who had spent many years covertly fighting some powerful Western countries?
Whereas the world may claim that it’s Libya that has failed, the reality is, it is the West that has totally failed Libyans and Africa as a whole.
