Reply #6: al Qaeda is not the issue. [View All]

[Distant Observer]

Al Qaeda IS NOT THE ISSUE.

It is just a distraction for all sides. The factional opposition to Gaddafi pre-dated the formation of Al Qaeda and pre-dated the Taliban, predated the Bush war in Iraq.

The Cyrenaicans have been in a passionate power-stuggle with Gaddafi that is deeply rooted in their history and culture. King Idris was both the political ruler and the religious ruler -- the Head of the Islamic Senussi Order -- and his followers and clan see themselves as the natural political and and spiritual leadership country. The noble Cyrenaicans have been dispossessed of power and previledge and their children and childern's children will never have their rightful place as long as Gaddafi rules.

Eastern Libya has been a cauldron of discontent and a hotbed of rebellion, coups and assassination attemps because of their hatred of El Gaddafi NOT love for Bin Laden.

At the same time, the men of Cyrenaica could get training in arms and insurgency because of Gaddafi's general policy of decentralization of power and basically of giving militants in Libya a long leash -- releasing leaders of revolts and coup attempts back into their communities after being detained for 're-education.'

In fact, the strongest evidence against charges that Gaddafi was a brutal oppressor liay in the fact that militant opposition groups operated openly in Eastern Libya and even ran the social, cultural and religious institutions in their cities.

But the Cyrenaicans are fighting for their rights as they have been for decades AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

What is DESPICABLE and FRAUDULENT is the use of the "Arab Spring" by the opposition political leadership as a cover for their latest attempts to topple the Government, AND the flood of hypocritical justifications for mass killings by Western powers as they seek to take advantage of the opportunity to achieve the regime-change goals of themselves and their allied dictator/rulers in the Arab world.
What is DESPICABLE and FRAUDULENT is the pretense that the Arab League is anything but a League of Tyrants who have hated Gaddafi for his bellicose rants against the Kings and Emirs for the rabid opulence and repression of their regimes.

What is DESPICABLE and FRAUDULENT is the insidious and pervasive propaganda campaign that has swamped the MSM with the proposition that if we tell enough lies and exaggerations to rally world opinion then the West will have a LICENSE TO KILL, AND KILL AND KILL, and imperialism becomes humanitarianism.
SO NOW THE PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN ROLLS ON:

Gaddafi’s repression is uniquely monstrous – when in reality it was mild compared with that in Yemen, Burma, Ivory Coast, Saudi Arabia, Syria etc. ;

Gaddafi’s family has stolen the wealth of Lybia – when the opposite is the case, and most family members live relatively modestly, acquire wealth in ways similar to all Western elites, and the Libya sovereign fund has been conservatively invested often in a socially responsible manner when compared to the sovereign funds of the other oil economies in Africa or the Gulf.

Gaddafi is now a war criminal for opposing a civil, armed, insurrection that was literally taking over town and cities by force of arms.

But, the war crime is not Gaddafi’s. Nor is it the rebels’ . The crime is the disproportionate violence of the self-righteous Western military leaders as they slaughter Libyan national soldiers even as they retreat or try to defend themselves from the attacking rebels. The crime is that of the conspiring powers who would have Libyan society disintegrate into a cauldron of chaos, hatred and violence, rather than risk any question as to who rules in their world.