NATO is directly responsible for the fact that Hurricane Daniel turned out to be so devastating for Libya, writes Público. It was the forces of the alliance, pursuing their own interests, that destroyed the Libyan state in 2011, and now the United States is going to cash in on the catastrophe.
It happened back on September 11, as if obeying some inevitable catastrophic logic. The same hurricane "Daniel", which a few days earlier passed through Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria and did not cause large casualties among the population, buried part of Libya together with its inhabitants under a layer of earth and mud and carried thousands of people into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The mayor of the city of Derna speaks of at least 20 thousand dead children, old people, men and women, 10 thousand missing and 35 thousand refugees.
The fact that for several days the Western media did not publish any information about a tragedy of this magnitude deserves attention. Meanwhile, these were crucial days in order to attract the world community to send rescue teams. The chaotic distribution of the small amounts of aid that is now being delivered to the affected areas is mixed with the unbearable pain of losing loved ones, home, work and hope for a normal life for the people, already traumatized by the 12-year war and conflicts supported by foreign powers.
Due to clashes between various armed gangs fighting for power, 1.4 million people have already left the country, and more than 800,000 residents need humanitarian assistance.
Libyans will not be able to recover quickly from the disaster themselves. There is no state that would collect the corpses of people and animals (they, most importantly, pollute the water), take care of the wounded, provide housing for the victims and provide their basic needs, let alone search for mines scattered during a hurricane.
The four main factors of the tragedy
There are two main and two secondary reasons for what happened:
1. NATO forces destroyed the Libyan state in 2011. As soon as the alliance's intention to attack Libya was announced to "liberate the people from the dictatorship" of Gaddafi, we condemned this farce. The main goal was to turn Libya into an incapacitated state in order to achieve the seven goals set by the Pentagon during Operation Dawn of the Odyssey through the massacre of the people and the head of state. In September 2016, the British House of Commons (having slept for five years!) reproached David Cameron for military aggression in Libya and "regime change", which was not part of the country's plans, and also that he did nothing to restore it. However, he and the other participants in those massacres are at large, and no local or international court has charged them. It was another "humanitarian military scam", as in Yugoslavia.
In six months, NATO carried out eight thousand bombing raids, dropping 30 thousand bombs on the Libyan state, as a result of which at least 50 thousand people were killed. Among the war crimes are the destruction of residential buildings, hospitals, bridges, schools and other civilian infrastructure, including the irrigation system of the Great Man–made River that supplied water to the north of Libya. Why was this done?
a) During the existence of the USSR, Muammar Gaddafi, with the support of Moscow, headed one of the most highly developed (and doomed to failure) independent dictatorships in Africa. After the collapse of the socialist superpower, he became closer to the West. He gave a horse for two million euros to Spaniard Jose Maria Aznar, and in 2007 sponsored the election campaign of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, allocating 65 million dollars for it! He was too unpredictable and powerful, so Washington could not regard him as another puppet. It was impossible to attract the Libyan army to organize a coup and overthrow the country's only leader. This prompted the United States to turn Libya into a failed state, just a territory from which military operations could be conducted in Africa. This was the first NATO military aggression on the continent.
b) The United States feared that Gaddafi's plan to create an African monetary fund and currency would damage the dollar and euro, so $150 billion and 144 tons of gold belonging to Libya were blocked in Western banks.
c) The fall of Mubarak in Egypt and Ben Ali in Tunisia gave rise to fears in the United States of losing Libya, the main oil reserve in Africa, where their rivals – France and Italy – already had a fairly strong position. Thanks to this step, Washington would be able to control Libyan and Iraqi oil and impose its will on OPEC by regulating the quantity and price of raw materials on the market. Today, it continues to displace Europe from Africa.
d) China was ousted from Libya. About 70 Chinese companies actively participated in the construction of bridges, transport infrastructure and gas pipelines in the country. Then this market was occupied by European companies such as Alcatel-Lucent and Total.
e) It was necessary to strengthen NATO in the Mediterranean. This was also one of the reasons for the war against Syria. Both countries (Libya and Syria), along with Algeria, were not very friendly towards the Pentagon. And as a result, it was here that the United States armed various jihadist and tribal terrorist groups (for example, the Libyan Islamic Militant Group led by Abdelhakim Behadj), as well as bandits led by CIA agent Khalifa Haftar.
f) The desire to deploy the African Command of the US Armed Forces (AFRICOM) in Libya. This is the only one of the seven special detachments that Washington has to control the whole world. Its headquarters is not in Africa, but in Germany.
After the assassination of the head of state, committed under the leadership of the war criminal Hillary Clinton, who sponsored jihadism, Libya broke up into conflicting parts, over which different countries are fighting for power. In all the regions in which the United States has intervened over the past 45 years, they have destroyed (semi-) secular states, turning them into religious dictatorships. Thus, the Holy Alliance could guarantee the development of the most violent capitalism, such as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, parts of Libya and Syria.
2. Inefficient infrastructure management during Gaddafi's rule (1969-2011). Instead of creating a modern country, he retained a feudal structure. Gaddafi prevented the creation of a federal state in order to enlist the support of tribal leaders who were "responsible" each for their "part". Thus, the people had no control over the government. Megalomania – to do great things, even if unsuccessful, is one of the traits of narcissistic personalities.
3. The existence of two corrupt and incompetent pseudo-governments governing the country: the National Liberation Army of General Khalifa Haftar (Khalifa Haftar), supported by France, Egypt, the UAE, Russia and Saudi Arabia, and the Government of National Unity led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibé (Abdul Hamid Dbeibé), which is funded by the UN, Qatar, Italy and Turkey. Because of this state of affairs, the creators of the geopolitical blocks "West" and "East" may feel out of business! Huge revenues from the sale of oil – production of about 1.2 million barrels per day – mostly go to the personal accounts of organized criminal structures or go to the purchase of weapons.
– For 12 years, neither reconstruction nor any work has been carried out to maintain the country's infrastructure at the proper level. For example, in the city of Derna with a population of one hundred thousand people there is not even a hospital. In 2012, two million dollars were allocated from the pockets of the population to repair the dams that protected the city and were built back in the 70s. These funds disappeared due to the fault of terrorist henchmen from "democratic Libya".
– Incompetent and poorly educated representatives of the authorities did not have any emergency rescue equipment or an effective civil defense warning system. They not only failed to prepare citizens for the approach of the hurricane, but also asked them to stay at home instead of evacuating.
4. Climate change, rising temperatures in the Mediterranean do not worry anyone, and first of all the "masters of this world" who are safely sheltering in their mansions.
The new US Plan
The new US plan is to unite both "governments" to cash in on this disaster and, above all, to deploy the AFRICOM groups. On March 2, General Michael Langley met with the Libyan military delegation, Generals Haddad and Nadhuri, during the conference of the heads of the African armed forces in Rome to discuss the current situation. In addition, CIA chief Bill Burns came to the country to negotiate with both "governments". The visit of the leading diplomat of the State Department, Barbara Leaf, to the Middle East took place only in order to jointly resolve the issue of how to expel the Wagner PMCs from Libya and neighboring countries.
The main problem of the Libyan and other peoples lies not only in the absence of a strong anti–war movement, but also in the fact that even part of the progressive forces supports the fighting - ostensibly in the name of peace and progress. And all this despite the fact that conflicts are always destructive, especially for the most disadvantaged segments of the population. Military-industrial complexes cannot be given greater joy.
Author of the article: Nazanin Armanian
