Ali Zeidan, Libyan Prime Minister, Kidnapped-then Released-by Terrorists
- More Chaos In Libya -
It should come as no surprise that the ensuing chaos following the brutal murder of Colonel Gadhafi - which was publicly applauded by Western politicians - is continuing. Our decision to renege on our responsibilities for bringing the murderers to justice culminated in the impunity with which another murderous faction then went on to brutally slay U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Again we see yet another murderous faction kidnap at will the country's Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, from what was said to be the safest place in Tripoli -The Corinthia Hotel. The fact that he was released hours later should give no security assurances to any foreigner doing business with one or another faction of the (so-called) Libyan 'government'. Libya is the new base for Al Qaeda and all factions of Salafist jihadi militias in North Africa - thanks to our intervention into the chaotic internal political affairs of yet another brutal Arab regime. When will our politicians get the message that there is nothing to be gained by overthrowing brutal dictators in the Arab world only to see them replaced with fanatical religious zealots - even more blood-thirsty than their predecessor tyrants? There is not a single Arab country where recent intervention by the West (The European Union and The United States) has created stability. But Libya is an exception. Libyans have never known 'democracy' and it certainly will not be parachuted in on the backs of MacDonalds and Pizza Hut. Like most Arab Middle East countries, in Libya we are talking tribal, ethnic, superstitious and uneducated masses which have been dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th and 21st centuries on the backs of petro-dollars -but whose perceptions of the world are rooted in the 7th-8th century-and Islam has taught the masses not to move very far beyond this frame of thinking for the conduct of their daily lives. What secular Muslim societies that had a fledgling existence we (the West) have destroyed in favor of religious extremists. We should not blame the uneducated masses in these countries for the chaos - it was created by external interventions to secure strategic resources. We were unhappy with the 'deals' already on the table and thought that doing business with the religious extremists would ensure more favorable terms.
Foreign policy today is dictated by global multinationals which have not one iota of a clue how to govern a country - only how to extract it's resources. So to them, the loss of lives - be they hundreds of thousands or millions - is totally irrelevant as it does not need to appear on the profit and loss balance sheets.
Libya presents a very clear and present danger to Southern Europe. Gadhafi facilitated the EU to halt the passage of illegal migrants from all parts of Africa through Libya to Europe. What happens if these Jihadi Militias use such (innocent) migrants as 'political' weapons? Potentially they could flood, to the point of overwhelming the capabilities of the EU countries to both prevent and detain such illegal migrations, across the Mediterranean. So the next 'terror attack' could well be a concerted plan to overwhelm resources and facilities in Southern Europe with illegal migrants-literally forced out of Libya by Jihadi militias onto hundreds or even thousands of boats - at gunpoint with the sole aim of destroying the infrastructures of Southern European Union countries - already reeling and buckling from economic austerity brought about by the world recession.
Having some understanding of the tactics of these very evil people, how are we to know that they would not deliberately sink hundreds of boats with tens of thousands of illegal migrants on board, in the middle of the Mediterranean, to cause maximum political impact in mainland Europe? Indeed how are we to know that the planning of 'terrorist' attacks of this nature has not already begun, specifically in Libya?; which has no functioning central administration.
I do not blame these poor people who may well have paid smugglers from as far afield as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Central Africa, West Africa to get them into Europe. They are no different than any other immigrants seeking better lives for themselves and their families. They are unfortunate to be choosing a time to emigrate illegally when Europe is in the depths of a major economic recession and also redefining itself as Judeo-Christian Europe. In my opinion, at this present moment in time, they would be better off seeking a new life in fellow- Muslim countries where their traditions, cultural values and practices would be more accepted - and seeking sanctuary, refuge and economic opportunity in Muslim societies whose values they and their families would willingly be able to easily adapt to - rather than be faced with daily conflicts and challenges in Christian societies whose value systems they would most certainly reject, despise, and some may well find themselves in perpetual conflict with and ultimately either hate their host countries or, even worse, wish to impose their values on reluctant majority Christian populations. It's a terrible dilemma and I do not profess to have an answer. What I do know is that if we allow this chaos in Libya to continue it will permeate the whole of North Africa as Al Qaeda establishes itself in it's new base - just miles off the coastline of Europe - that is, in anarchic Libya. One solution might be to place Libya under a 'Protectorate' Muslim administration-perhaps initially that of Egypt - and then attempt to move the country toward normalcy and civil society over a period of 20-50 years.
There are no easy solutions-and in the meanwhile only expect bad news from Libya for the foreseeable future.
Patrick Emek
October 10th 2013