NY Review of Books: Is Libya Cracking Up?

Nicolas Pelham in the New York Review of Books reports from post-NATO-anointed Libya. The bungling interim government and the incessant ethnic conflict are not bringing the democracy heralded by the war’s advocates:

Yet for Libya’s new governors, the turbulent south—home to Libya’s wells of water and oil—is unnerving. Since Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the NTC chairman, declared an end to the civil war last October, the violence in the south is worse than it was during the struggle to oust Qaddafi. Hundreds have been killed, thousands injured, and, according to UN figures, tens of thousands displaced in ethnic feuding. Without its dictator to keep the lid on, the country, it seems, is boiling over the sides.

…Both sides speak of arming for the battle ahead. Photographs of mutilated cadavers displayed on mobile phones ensure that the scars remain open. The graffiti that raiding Zwarans left on Riqdaleen’s walls threatened to turn the town into a “second Tuwagha,” the site inhabited by pro-Qaddafi black Libyans that militiamen from Misrata, further east, ethnically cleansed in the fall. “We don’t see a new Libya,” the Riqdaleen town councilor told me. “We’re starting to regret. The Berbers want us out.”

The issues in Libya have spread throughout the region. The displaced have fled to neighboring countries in all directions. At the same time, arms flows coming out of Libya (some 20 million guns are estimated to be circulating in Libya,” Pelham reports) are getting into the hands of unsavory groups. A UN report released in February assessing ”the Libyan crisis” said the impact of the NATO-backed rebel victory over Gadhafi “reverberated across the world” in “such neighboring countries as Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, the Niger and Tunisia,” which, “bore the brunt of the challenges that emerged as a result of the crisis.” The bulk of the Sahel region “had to contend with the influx of hundreds of thousands of traumatized and impoverished returnees as well as the inflow of unspecified and unquantifiable numbers of arms and ammunition from the Libyan arsenal.”

Pelham writes: “Libya’s turmoil is acquiring continental significance.”

Aside from that, no official in Washington has dared answer for the serious violation of human rights, including torture and extra-judicial killings, that NATO’s proxies have committed.

One thought on “NY Review of Books: Is Libya Cracking Up?”

  1. How about the US and NATO answering for its war crimes, in violating Libya's borders and national sovereignty, deposing its government, destroying its infrastructure, taking away the economic future of a people whose standard of living was the highest in Africa- a country with a 90% literacy rate, government paid education through university level, a better level of social security payments than our own, payments to families who had children, and an infrastructure that included the largest water system in the world which was built by Libya for water transfer throughout the desert nations of Africa. The list goes on, and these are not from public relations releases but from United Nations reports.
    Libya's was an authoritarian government but it was in many ways forward looking for its people, despite the propaganda from NATO and the US at the end. And, Lockerbie? Even the NY Times has finally conceded that Libya was not responsible, something that legal experts knew many years before. This is as good an example of 19th century imperialism in the 21st century as any, apart from Syria which the US and NATO are doing their best to make the next Libya.

    1. Thank you mlnw, and to all who seek the truth. I was dissapointed in seeing the reference to Gaddafi as a 'dictator'. The Green Resistance fights on, encourage all to support the Green Charter movement for World Jamahariya, and PLEASE read the Green Book. This simple and short book which outlines the Third Universal Theory is the real reason we went after Gaddafi.

  2. As long as the country is divided, the criminals can operate at will and since many of them are multi-national corporations donating to U.S. elections, this shouldn't be a surprise.

  3. I have learned some new things from a blog post. Yet another thing to I have recognized is that usually, FSBO sellers are going to reject anyone. Remember, they’d prefer never to use your products and services. But if a person maintain a stable, professional connection, offering guide and keeping contact for four to five weeks, you will usually have the ability to win interviews. From there, a listing follows. Cheers

  4. Nicolas Pelham is related with the revival of Shia Islam . He is the author of the new Muslim order. He broadcasting and writing the middle East affairs.
    A Lawyer Talks

  5. Well I don't know the entire story, but let me remind you this: People never rebel/revolt just because they don't have enough freedom. Almost every single rebellion in history has had an economic reason, like for example the lack of work in Libya.
    Regards,
    http://orientaloutcall.com

  6. Please help! I have to write a 3-5 page paper on this topic and I wanted to know the background information on the problems in Libya, how it occurred, the present solutions discussed and how it can be resolved. <a href="http://www.dentalspots.com” target=”_blank”>www.dentalspots.com

  7. I want to know how is the current rebellion in Libya relevant to the study of world history and geography this year? I need to write a paragraph on this prompt and I am having a big trouble writing this. Please help!

  8. I have a project to do in my class and I have to create a huge statistical investigation on it and I have to compare China and Libya and the question is how many people died in China and how many people died in Libya in 2008 because of hunger.

  9. I need to get a current event and relate it to history. I thought that maybe the civil war in Libya would be a good current event I could use. But now I don't know what to relate it to???

Comments are closed.