Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, covering the Statewide Organizers' Conference sponsored by the Moratorium Now! Coalition in downtown Detroit on December 6, 2008. (Photo: Alan Pollock). a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Libyan Military Forces Route Western-backed Rebels From Several Towns and Ports
France recognizes opposition while imperialists plot intervention, regime-change
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
While the military forces of the Libyan government drive rebel groups
out of several towns and the oil producing port at Ras Lanuf, the
western-backed counter-revolutionaries are repeating calls for greater intervention on the part of the imperialist states. Although the
United States, Britain, France, the European Union and NATO are
clearly supporting and coordinating the actions of the groups battling
to topple the Libyan government, the failure of the monarchists,
defectors and CIA-trained units to damage the fighting capacity of the
patriots prompted NATO to hold a meeting to assess their strategy on March 10.
Libyan forces have reportedly moved out hundreds of rebels from both Ras Lanuf and Zawiya causing them to drive their vehicles further east where the unrest was started some three weeks ago. Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has maintained that the rebels are backed by the western imperialist countries and that they are attempting to divide the country along regional and tribal lines.
Gaddafi has made several appearances on Libyan and international
television where he has reiterated that his government will not
relinquish any territory or political authority to the rebels and
their supporters. Since the beginning of the unrest, the corporate
media outlets in the U.S. and around the world have given
unconditional support to the western-backed rebel groups.
Nonetheless, even Al Jazeera, which has exclusively provided a
one-sided, pro-rebel, and consequently pro-imperialist, perspective on the situation in Libya, was forced to admit that the
counter-revolutionary units were retreating from key areas in the west
and central regions of the country and that morale among the
opposition was declining even in Benghazi, which is the de facto
headquarters of the anti-Libyan government forces.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent Tony Birtley mulled that “We’ve been
wondering for the last few days about why Gaddafi has not employed his full forces, and today we’ve seen those forces in action. We were
caught right in the middle as his forces out-flanked, and then
out-bombed and out-shot the opposition forces. There was sustained aerial and artillery and mortar bombardment, and then following in by a flanking movement.” (Al Jazeera, March 10)
This same reporter went on to say that “There have been a number of
casualties. We’ve seen trucks going along the highway, but that’s
being shelled by Gaddafi forces all the way along. I counted…50 shells falling.”
Birtley also noted that the offensive by the Libyan military forces
illustrated the “professionalism of Gaddafi’s troops, and it shows
that…he’s hitting back. We’ve seen trucks with wounded lying in the
back of pick-ups, and I think the casualty toll is going to be high.”
One rebel fighter was quoted by the French Press Agency (AFP) as
saying that “We’ve been defeated. They are shelling and we are running away. That means that they’re taking Ras Lanuf."
Another town, Ajdabiya, where the rebels claim to be in control, has
seen a major push into the area by the Libyan military. Jacky
Rowland, also from Al Jazeera, stated that “The latest that we’ve
heard on Thursday (March 10) is that the Gaddafi forces are attacking
by land from the west, along the coastal roads.”
In addition, Rowland notes that the Libyan military is “also attacking
from the south, from the desert and, a key development, they’re
attacking as well from the sea, to the north. This is clearly a
concerted effort to route the rebels from their western-most
positions, and it comes on the heels of intense fighting from the two
sides the day before.”
France, U.S., NATO Intervention Aimed at Toppling Government
All of the major imperialist states are lined up against the Libyan
government in their demand that Muammar Gaddafi and his supporters be overthrown. Nonetheless, these western countries are divided over the best way to proceed in carrying out the removal of the current government and the seizure of the oil and natural gas resources inside this North African state.
U.S. military forces have already suffered tremendous defeats and
setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. Inside Afghanistan, the Pentagon has ordered over a thousand bombing missions per month along with the deployment of over 100,000 American and NATO troops.
Despite this show of large-scale military prowess, the resistance
forces of the Taliban and others opposed to the U.S./NATO occupation are growing significantly. The U.S. has no strategy for the decisive defeat of the resistance in Afghanistan or Pakistan, where the war has spread even wider under the Obama administration.
Obama dispatched an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in late
2009 but these new units have failed miserably in bringing the country under the control of the U.S. military forces. In Pakistan, the U.S. and NATO policy has only succeeded in creating more adversaries and attacks against supply lines have placed these convoys in greater risk.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned Congress and the Obama administration of the dangers associated with possible aerial bombardments of Libya and the deployment of troops in this North African state. The former holdover from the Bush administration indicated that the imposition of a so-called “No-Fly Zone” over Libya would require air strikes against their defensive positions and the moving of a large-scale naval expedition into the region.
Gates went even further to say that any U.S. administration, based
upon the experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan, would have to have its
head examined if it proposed to dispatch large numbers of soldiers and armaments to an Asian country. Such a position would also have to include Africa since white settler colonial regimes and the U.S. and military have engaged African resistance forces to their own
detriments over the last five-and-a-half decades.
A few days later on March 10, the U.S. Director for National
Intelligence, James Clapper, told Congress that Libya would prevail in the civil war. This statement prompted calls for his resignation from elements within the Congress while the Obama administration
immediately sought to distance itself from such an assessment.
In Iraq despite the fact that the official U.S. position is that the
“surge” worked and that the combat mission is over, there are Pentagon forces still being killed in the country. This middle-eastern nation that was invaded and occupied in 2003 is by no means stable or self-sufficient.
Just over the last several weeks, there have been demonstrations
involving hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who are protesting against
the horrendous conditions prevalent inside the country which include
poor drinking water, the lack of utility services, high unemployment,
food and fuel prices. Dozens of people were killed by the U.S.-trained
security forces in the demonstrations that occurred in Feb. and March. These demonstrations, and the brutality with which they were treated, garnered virtually no press coverage inside the U.S.
Although the U.S. and the other western imperialist states claim that
their concerns in Libya are only related to the burgeoning
humanitarian crisis that has been caused by the fighting launched by
the rebels, it is quite clear that the motivation of all these
capitalist states is to support the weakening and toppling of the
internationally-recognized government of Muammar Gaddafi. The U.S. has dispatched war ships to the region under the guise of evacuating foreigners from the North African state.
In a report from the Voice of America (VOA) it points out that “In
recent weeks, AFRICOM (The U.S. Africa Command) has been engaged in its first operational assignment, helping to evacuate foreigners from Libya and delivering humanitarian supplies to refugees in Tunisia. The command has also had a key role in preparing what officials call a ‘full range of options’ in case President Barack Obama orders military intervention in Libya.” (VOA, March 9)
In a statement from General William Ward, the outgoing head of
AFRICOM, the evacuation of people from Libya has served to resolve the fears that Africans have as it relates to the role of this military
structure with specific goals related to the continent. Ward says “the
sustained engagement” of AFRICOM has proven valuable during the
efforts to topple the government in Libya.
In an apparent reference to the U.S.-supported military in Egypt, Ward
noted “There is no greater evidence of that today than what’s going on the northern tier of this continent. Where we have had those sustained relationships, we see militaries behaving in a way that contributes to the stability of a society as opposed to not.”
The VOA interpreted this as “where a military very close to the United
States (Egypt) acted with restraint and facilitated a smooth
transition, and Libya, where a military cut off from the United States
has fractured, and some units are firing on their own people.” In
other words the aim of U.S. foreign policy in North Africa is to reign
in military forces that are not under the control of the Pentagon and
the White House.
Identifying two states in Africa that require the attention of the
U.S., Secretary of Defense Gates told a gathering of AFRICOM in
Stuttgart, Germany that “In North Africa, we see people fighting for
political change from a revolution in Libya to Southern Sudan, a new
nation coming into being. Throughout the region, nations are
struggling to give their fast-growing populations liberty, basic
necessities and greater opportunities while fighting the scourge of
terrorism, corruption and piracy.”
Both Sudan and Libya are oil producing states that are not under the
control of U.S. imperialism. In Sudan and Libya the U.S. is
supporting the successionist forces that are attempting to divide and
consequently weaken the national capability of these African states.
According to the VOA, the “Africa Command supervises all U.S. military engagement in Africa, except for Egypt….” Nonetheless, Egypt receives an estimated $1.5 billion annually to subsidize its military forces that are closely allied with Washington.
A United Press International (UPI) dispatch published on March 9 said that “Egypt, still grappling with a revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February, is reported to be quietly aiding rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.”
This article continues by noting that “While the United States and the
international community debate whether to intervene in the civil war
raging in Libya to support the ragtag rebel forces holding the east of
the country, Egypt apparently has sent around 100 Special Forces
troops to help the insurgents. The U.S. global security consultancy
Stratfor says these troops ‘have played a key role in quietly
providing weaponry and training to Libyan opposition forces while
trying to organize a political command in the east.'”
Also Stratfor told UPI that neighboring Tunisia, which recently
experience worker and student rebellion and the resignation of the
president and prime minister, “is allowing armed volunteer fighters,
along with Egyptian special operations forces, to enter Libya. This
reported influx of fighters would presumably be used to flank
Gaddafi’s forces from the west while other opposition forces move in
from the east for a potential battle over Tripoli,“ the capital.
Unnamed sources referred to in the UPI report indicate that the
“Egyptian commandoes are most likely from Unit 777 of the Egyptian
army’s Special Operations Command set up in the late 1970s. Unit 777’s 250-300 personnel trains with Germany’s elite GSC-9 counter-terrorism force, the U.S. Army’s Delta Force and France’s GIGN, special operations arm of the National Gendarmerie.”
Military analyst Victor Kotsev wrote in the Asia Times that with the
removal of Mubarak the Egyptian military is positioned to play a
broader role in the region at the behest of U.S. strategic interests.
“This means that in the near future, the United States may conceivably get a new source of manpower in the Middle East. For Egypt’s military rulers, this would also be a way to divert public attention away from domestic problems and to demonstrate competent rule in one area where they are indeed expert: military intervention,” says Kotsev.
This same article in the Asia Times went as far as to say that “In a
sense, the uprising created the ideal conditions for expanding Egypt’s military role in the region. It weakened the political structure of the country while empowering the army.“
Stratfor, the security consultancy firm, points out that “Libya’s
energy assets give it internal wealth that Egypt lacks, though these
resources also make the country an attractive target. Coming out of
its own political crisis, Egypt is experiencing a reawakening in the
Arab world and appears eager to reassert its influence following years of insularity.“
The conservative government of Nicolas Sarkozy of France has been the first of the imperialist states to formally recognize the rebel forces
while the others have called for the removal of the existing power
structure in Libya. The rebel forces have encouraged the rest of the
European Union to follow the course as France.
NATO’s meeting on March 10 brought together the defense ministers, foreign ministers and prime ministers or presidents for a two-day meeting that will shape the immediate course of action by the imperialist states against Libya. Just prior to the March 10
gathering, NATO said that it was engaging in the 24-hour-a-day
surveillance of Libyan air space. (ABC, Australia, March 10)
NATO also admitted that an airborne warning and control aircraft has
already gone on patrol with a Boeing E3 Sentry maintaining a position over the Mediterranean. There is the possibility of NATO declaring a “No-Fly Zone” over Libya even without the approval of the United Nations Security Council.
U.S. Must Not Escalate Involvement in Libya and North Africa
The U.S. is already heavily involved militarily on the African
continent with the growing presence of AFRICOM as well as joint
operations with various states throughout the region. The U.S.
military base in Djibouti serves as its forward operational center in
the Horn of Africa and with the Egyptian military being given an even
greater role to act on behalf of Washington, the prospects for direct
strikes against Libya are highly probable.
These foreign policy and military maneuvers can lead to a protracted
ground conflict involving U.S. and NATO forces in North Africa.
Consequently, it is important that the anti-war and peace movements in the U.S. take a clear and decisive position opposing this new attempt at occupying other territories on the African continent.
Until the democratic movements in Tunisia and Egypt take on an
anti-imperialist character, the U.S. and NATO will have a broad
opening to not only attack Libya and other states in the region, but
to blunt and reshape the character of the political transitions taking
place in North Africa and the Middle East. Such a political and
military initiative on the part of the White House and the Pentagon
will only result in further disaster for the working people and
oppressed inside the U.S. and other capitalist states.
Therefore additional states in Africa are now under even more of a
threat of direct military intervention from the U.S. and other
imperialist countries. These African states would include Sudan,
Zimbabwe, and Somalia, where the U.S. is already engaged in a proxy war to prevent the seizure of power by an Islamic resistance movement that is hostile to Washington’s objectives in the Horn of Africa.
Therefore, people in the United States must vigorously oppose the
intervention by the Pentagon and NATO in the plot to topple the Libyan government. The resources utilized for war and occupation throughout the world should be re-channeled to provide jobs, housing, healthcare, quality education and public services to the majority of working people and the poor.
The people of Libya and North Africa are not the enemies of the
working people and the oppressed of the United States. Quite to the
contrary, the peoples of the U.S. and North Africa must form alliances
to address the commonality of exploitation and oppression that are
being meted out by the ruling class within the imperialist states who
are intensifying their repressive tactics all over the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment