Middle East Quagmire: A Matter Of Perspective
Ghadafi has refused to go. He claims he holds no elected Office. That is no news. Libyans never had elections since independence anyway. So the issue of him resigning is absurd. He is not a head of State. He is the Head of his own creation, ‘The Jamharia.’ Unlike Isaias, Ghadafi does not have subjects. His people are his children. So how do you abandon your children even if they rebel? That would be most unfatherly.
At first Hosni also refused to give up his post. He was actually elected. Elected like in Meles getting elected or like in Mugabe getting elected. At least we can draw some comfort that Isaias never claimed he was elected whatever it is worth.
In its response to the unfolding situations in its outposts, Empire has been at a loss on how to act. These leaders after all were not Dictators to Empire. They were Autocrats. This definition was first adopted by the Reagan Administration. Remember Kirkpatrick, that right wing reactionary US envoy to the UN! She was the one who came up with this designation.
The Obama Administration was caught with its pants down. Literally and figuratively. So at first the strategy adopted was ‘Regime adjustment’. Hosni will go (or whoever) Torturer number two Sulieman takes over, some cosmic change is made and everyone lives happily ever after.
But then there was a problem. Those unruly masses, those uncouth proletariats refused to be satisfied. Eisner. Empires’ envoy to Egypt warned that without the firm hands of Hosni and Omar Suleiman at the helm, Egypt will descend into chaos. Prime on his mind was also his investment with the Mubarak family.
So Clinton was dispatched to the Security Conference in Germany. She declared that Mubarak was stable, and Biden the long time foreign affairs expert of the Obama administration pronounced that Hosni, good old Hosni, was not a dictator. Obama in his infinite wisdom, ordered that ‘there must be an orderly change and change must begin now,’ before the unruly crowd gets its way. But the wheels for ‘Regime Adjustment’ were not following the edicts. Well that is all history now. Power has been transferred to the rich guys in uniform, who will crop up out of uniform in unexpected places disguised in Skid Row suits and ties.
Libya of course was a different proposition. Ghadafi was not that enamored with the West until recently when Blair went on a pilgrimage to the desert to pledge his fealty to the tyrant in exchange for oil investment and the head of Osama if possible. But now all that planning and Ghadafis’sacceptance by the West has gone down the drain.
His actions have been pronounced unacceptable by the Administration and the powers that be of Europe. ‘Unacceptable’ is the word that George Bush used to chastise the Russians during his Georgian misadventure. Clinton called the action of ex-Yugoslav strongman Milosevic, unacceptable. As Tom Scocca wrote in his blog they always say this is ‘unacceptable’ as if Ghadafi or whoever has asked for their approval on his actions.
Obama was incensed at the loss of life in Libya as he was in Iran. What a joke. Here is a guy who has killed more civilians than George Bush could dream in two lifetimes in Afghanistan, and he is incensed by the loss of civilian lives in Libya. He is now training two hundred thousand Afghans to kill other Afghans all in the name of fighting Al Qaida.
As a concession to the unruly masses they have now frozen the assets of these dictators wherever they can find them. Funnily they never freeze these assets when these thieves were in power. You, now, tell them this is ‘unacceptable’
Hosni looted almost Eighty billion dollars by some estimates. Zen Bin Ali a mere twenty. Give Meles credit. His wife hasn’t looted even one third of that. OK maybe one third. And Isaias? He had the misfortune to steal chicken feed. I mean Eritrea isn’t that rich a country, you know. Just enough to keep him drunk for the rest of his life. One or two billion at the most.
The affairs of Empire regarding these rebellious outposts has now been put firmly in the capable hands of John Kerry (yes no other than old horse face himself). You know John who lost to the compassionate George. His committee is gathering all the necessary experts and drawing all the various scenarios for a final plan which he hopes will go smoothly unless events in other unruly outposts, say, Yemen, Oman or Bahrain or Kuwait overtakes him. Good luck John.
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