How can one country that is often ignored by the world community have such an effect on all of us, even more than Egypt in some ways? Libya has often been under the radar over the last 70 years except for the battle between the Allies and Afrika Corps during the Second World War and in the 80s when Reagan chose to challenge Gadhafi’s threats and bomb him as America’s response to Libya’s dictator, and of course their involvement in the bombing of the 747 plane over Scotland. The result of the tryst with Reagan was the application of sanctions on Libya and Iran in a joint sanctions law, and it seems Libya’s revolution will be the fourth major international event with this North African nation after the removal of Libya from the Italian colonial system a few generations ago.
Libya is a country which can be argued is simply used by Europe and the US for its resources, and like many African nations, is abandoned when the issue of rights for its local people is questioned and our borders are closed because of it. The closest ties to Libya and the country that has seemed to react the least to the true crisis in Libya is Italy. Despite the large number of migrants coming from Tunisia and in the future from Libya and their legal claims showing they are true refugees under European and International legal codes, Italy has asked the European community to help deal with its persistent and recently growing migrant problems and has not taken steps towards speaking to the rights of Libyan nationals in any meaningful way. This might have to do with treaty agreements a few years ago made with Gadhafi making repatriations for its colonial past and taking obligations to not use any military force against Libya, but when the population who has suffered in the colonial past are being rocketed by their own government, there should be a response beyond nervousness over oil prices that can urge Italy, Europe and the US to help stop a massacre. Just because it is Africa and it affects oil prices, does not make Gadhafi’s actions legitimate. Like Sudan’s Darfur and Rwanda, Libya could become the next embarrassment for the UN and lead to more questions on why the UN exists at all if it cannot prevent Libyan Mirage F.1’s from rocketing their own people unless the pilot has their own compassion and leaves the country.
The fear that many claim has kept the Obama administration paralyzed on the Middle East and has lead to Europe only speaking and not acting about doing something in Libya and Iran, is the fear that the Arab street will see the US and Europe as oppressing the local population further and allow their leaders to blame the US and Europe for their local troubles. This paralyzed policy will not change anyone’s perception of the West as information in the region is as good as the source it comes from. In Libya and Iran the lack of response is leading to the massacre of many in the Arab and Persian world and is confirming the theory in the region that the Middle East is simply a resource base for the West and that democracy and human rights are always abandoned for the sake of a 3 cent difference in oil prices. In reality, despite the EU not wishing to give more political pull to Russia, the alternative in supporting dictators in the Middle East does not justify not having problems with the Russian alternative. Canada is the second largest oil reserve after Saudi Arabia, and the US would do better working with their neighbours in Canada and Latin America and coming up with shared environmental solutions than allowing Libyans to die in silence from political leaders in order to get cheap oil. The cost of the lack of human rights in the Middle East will be a lot more expensive than current oil prices as we watch how the gas rises and do not take any actions against Gadhafi’s massacre of its innocent citizens. As in Sudan, Rwanda and in Libya, we have a legal obligations to assist Libya’s citizens, but right now nothing is being done and people die by the minute. The absurd part of it is that the US and Saudi’s can easily compensate the lost production from Libya and we are all paying higher prices based on a future problem in the region that has yet to exist.
Some simple solutions to help Libya’s people and save some humanity for us in the West would come from assisting Libyans to leave the country if requested as soon as possible and assisting the revolutionary governments in Egypt and Tunisia in processing those refugees. This should be done with a focus on getting refugees out of the country as opposed to focus on how Europe should manage its refugees as a main goal, just get them out first! Getting food assistance to those in Libya as well by any means possible and necessary would also be a crucial response. A crucial and immediate response to Gadhafi and mercenaries attacking the Libyan people would be to fly CAP missions over Libya and turning back any aggressive planes or helicopters from attacking demonstrators and shoot them down in necessary. Many of this equipment was sold to Gadhafi from Europe, so it shouldn’t be an issue to eliminate those planes rocketing Libya’s own people. After all, any agreements made with Libya are for the benefit of its people, and not its dictator.
The crisis in Egypt, despite being described by much of the media as a Crisis was handled in a fairly good way by Mr.Obama and the military in Egypt and avoided a Libya in the Middle East’s most populace nation. Libya as a seller of oil to the West has become just the seller of oil instead of being seen as a country with people who deserve their rights. Egyptians, Libya’s neighbour would surely agree that rights and dignity are required before democracy can be obtained, and that true support comes with the defence of rights and democracy in practice as well as in writing.
