16 April 2011
What’s Happening in Libya?
The early 2011 events in North Africa and elsewhere in the Arab world have given European leaders the opportunity to try and redeem the legacy of their colonial pasts. The heads of government in Great Britain, France and Italy have called for NATO to take active measures in support of the rebels in Libya in order to force Col. Muammer Qaddafi to relinquish political control.
None of those European nations really has the capability or popular will on its own, even in alliance with the rest of the European Union, to muscle an embarrassing despot out of power at the risk of alienating the strategically critical Arab community. The Arab League has endorsed intervention only in order to prevent harm to civilians. This impotence is illustrated by the desultory role that France has played in restoring order to Ivory Coast.
They owe it to the gleeful speculation of the world’s commodity traders that oil prices have spiked high enough to make it necessary for President Obama to acquiesce to the use of NATO’s heavily American firepower in supporting Libya’s rebels. His action provides the internationalist mantle that makes intervention politically palatable to the war-weary European public. Aspirations have been fanned by modern communications beyond educated Libyans’ real capacity to replace Qaddafi’s regime with a practical, if more democratic, alternative. It will take time for them to master the ability to manage their nation’s affairs and economy.
Foreign powers are the engineers of Libya’s modern commercial wealth. To the extent they intervene, they will reap responsibility for shepherding the development of the country’s civic order and equitable distribution of its wealth. The information technology revolution has made it impossible to enjoy the benefits of exploiting Libya’s hyddrocarbon riches while ignoring the needs of its people. The price of exploitation will go far beyond military overthrow of a dictator.
The early 2011 events in North Africa and elsewhere in the Arab world have given European leaders the opportunity to try and redeem the legacy of their colonial pasts. The heads of government in Great Britain, France and Italy have called for NATO to take active measures in support of the rebels in Libya in order to force Col. Muammer Qaddafi to relinquish political control.
None of those European nations really has the capability or popular will on its own, even in alliance with the rest of the European Union, to muscle an embarrassing despot out of power at the risk of alienating the strategically critical Arab community. The Arab League has endorsed intervention only in order to prevent harm to civilians. This impotence is illustrated by the desultory role that France has played in restoring order to Ivory Coast.
They owe it to the gleeful speculation of the world’s commodity traders that oil prices have spiked high enough to make it necessary for President Obama to acquiesce to the use of NATO’s heavily American firepower in supporting Libya’s rebels. His action provides the internationalist mantle that makes intervention politically palatable to the war-weary European public. Aspirations have been fanned by modern communications beyond educated Libyans’ real capacity to replace Qaddafi’s regime with a practical, if more democratic, alternative. It will take time for them to master the ability to manage their nation’s affairs and economy.
Foreign powers are the engineers of Libya’s modern commercial wealth. To the extent they intervene, they will reap responsibility for shepherding the development of the country’s civic order and equitable distribution of its wealth. The information technology revolution has made it impossible to enjoy the benefits of exploiting Libya’s hyddrocarbon riches while ignoring the needs of its people. The price of exploitation will go far beyond military overthrow of a dictator.
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