Andrew Murray
The Guardian, Tue 22 Mar 2011 07.30 GMT
The
onslaught by the US, Britain and France to impose regime change in Libya – for that is what this war is about – has little to do with saving lives and less with supporting democracy in the Arab world. It is about controlling, not sustaining, the drive for change in the Middle East, by bringing the whole process under western domination.
The belief of the rulers of
Bahrain and
Yemen – that they have the west's blessing to do whatever is necessary to crush protest while Colonel Gaddafi is to be obliterated for doing much the same – is the starkest sign of this.
The UN security council decision has given the stamp of legality to an essentially lawless project. This situation calls for assertive mediation, not massive bombardment, if saving lives is really the concern – as the second thoughts already gripping Russia, China and some Arab leaders indicate.
The UN decision was taken at the instigation of the frightened autocrats of the Arab League, few of whom can claim any mandate to rule superior to that of Gaddafi's brutal regime. Behind a transparent Qatari fig-leaf, its implementation has been subcontracted to the same powers who have spread such havoc throughout the Arab world for a century and more, up to and including Iraq.
Bombing may entrench an armed standoff, a situation bound to lead to endless excuses for throwing more military weight behind the rebellion, not excluding "boots on the ground". This could result in a de facto partition of Libya, with foreign occupation of its eastern parts. But if Gaddafi is overthrown, any successor regime sponsored from abroad will lack legitimacy for many Libyans and become a focus for continuing civil conflict.
Against this background
Angela Merkel's concerns about a wider conflict and civilian casualties – now shared by growing sections of world opinion – seem sensible. Others, however, are more concerned with saving their own skins. First prize for barefaced lack of self-awareness must go to the hereditary despots of the
Gulf Co-operation Council – the Saudi oligarchy and its royal satellites – who declared Libya's regime illegitimate. They then resolutely denounced any external interference in their own internal affairs while signing up for intervention in Libya.
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