Nice one Jens.

 

The Interpretation of Liberation

When the same thing is interpreted differently by different people, it’s often a sign that different values or motivations are influencing those differing interpretations.

Currently, this is nowhere more striking than in the differing responses of western and eastern nations to whether the NATO bombing of Libya is necessary to protect Libyan civilians under the wording of United Nations resolution 1973.

Western nations are heavily backing the Libyan opposition movement headed by Mahmoud Jibril, while eastern nations seem more sympathetic to the incumbent, Muammar Gaddafi. Both western and eastern nations profess to value the protection of civilian life, so the inescapable conclusion has to be that their different responses to the situation in Libya are influenced by other perspectives.

Recognising motivations can take a little digging, but understanding those motivations often requires digging a little bit more.  In fact, a reasonable understanding of the present often demands some knowledge of the past and, despite what certain strands of the New Age movement proclaim, there is not only a “now” - consciousness regularly brings understandings of the past into the present for the benefit of the future.

In coming to grips with the current situation in Libya, a review of its past is therefore required. That means this blog post is going to be a longish one but fortunately we don’t have to go right back to antiquity to get a basic understanding of current Libyan affairs as the tumultuous realignment of North African interests brought about by the 2^nd World War offers us a very convenient place to start. 

Libia Italiana was an Italian colony at the outbreak of the War. At that time Muhammed Idris was leader of the Senussi movement that fought against Italian colonial rule. During the War, Idris supported the Allies and carried out guerrilla campaigns against the Italians from his base in Egypt.  After the eventual defeat of the Axis powers in North Africa, the United Kingdom invited Idris to form a government and in 1951 the United Nations proclaimed the United Libyan Kingdom as an independent state.

In 1969, while he was in Turkey for medical treatment, king Idris was deposed in a coup led by a group of Libyan army officers under the leadership of a 27 year old by the name of Muammar Gaddafi. The monarchy was immediately abolished and a republic proclaimed. Idris was placed on trial in absentia in the Libyan Peoples Court and sentenced to death. He never returned to Libya and died in exile in Cairo in 1983. Even in 2011, many Benghazian-based rebels like the one pictured below have been seen carrying portraits of King Idris during protests against Colonel Gaddafi.

Throughout the 1970's Libya under Gaddafi was considered a rogue state and diplomatically isolated by Western powers. Gaddafi pursued an Arab nationalist and politically socialist agenda but his rule quickly became characterised by the suppression of dissent.  He became involved in the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (now OPEC) and began to leverage Libya’s oil production for political and economic gain. A few highlights of his time as ruler of Libya that help to explain the present impasse between eastern and western nations are chronicled below:

1973: Gaddafi proclaims the entire Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean to be Libyan territory, including a 115km exclusive fishing zone extending from the coastline.  The United States asserts its right to conduct naval operations and maintain trade passages in all international waters at a standard 22km distance from a country’s shore. Tensions over this issue gradually begin to heighten in a slow, creeping cold war kind of way.

23 March 1983: two US F-14 navy fighter planes escort three US navy warships into the disputed waters of the coast of Libya. Libya fires surface to air missiles towards the planes but they miss and fall into the sea. Libya then dispatches 2 Soviet-made MIG fighter planes and several patrol boats. More US navy fighter planes are released and their missiles take out Libyan radar stations before striking at Libyan boats. 35 Libyans are killed and many wounded.

One month after this incident, a magazine article entitled “Top Guns”  about US Navy fighter pilots is published in America. Hollywood purchases the rights to the article and begins preparing for production of the film starring Tom Cruise as an F-14 navy fighter pilot who wins a spectacular stand-off against several Soviet  MIG’s. To his eternal credit, Bryan Adams turns down an offer to record the song “Danger Zone” due to a concern that the film glorifies war. Kenny Loggins steps in and has a enormous hit, but Bryan Adams the longer career. Kenny's video is posted below for everyone too proud to admit they've seen the movie more than once...

January 1986: At the height of the Cold War and amid mounting tensions, President Ronald Reagan imposes sanctions against Libya and terms Gaddafi the “mad dog of the Middle East”.

December 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 en route to New York explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 bystanders on the ground. Libyan nationals are identified as prime suspects in the bombing.

March 31, 1992: The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 748 imposing sanctions on Libya, including an arms embargo and air travel restrictions.

November 11, 1993: The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 883 which tightens sanctions on Libya. The resolution includes a limited freeze of Libyan assets as well as a ban on exports of oil equipment to Libya.

August 5, 1996: The US passes the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act into law. The act authorizes the president to impose sanctions against foreign companies that invest more than $40 million a year in Libya’s oil industry.

April 5, 1999: Libya hands over two suspects--each reportedly linked to Libyan intelligence--to Dutch authorities for trial in the bombing of Pam Am Flight 103. Immediately following the handover, the Security Council suspends sanctions against Libya originally imposed in 1992.

January 31, 2001: Three judges hand down verdicts in the Pan Am trial. Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, is found guilty of 270 counts of murder. A leading Scottish jurist calls the trial the greatest miscarriage of justice and conspiracy theories over the real cause of the bombing still abound.

September 11, 2001: The September 11 attacks take place in the United States. Airplane hijackings result in the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York, damage to the Pentagon and the crashing of a passenger airliner in Pennsylvania. 

November 19, 2001:  Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton states that Libya may be actively seeking to develop or deploy offensive biological weapons.

August 3, 2002: President George W. Bush extends the provisions of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act for an additional five years.

March 2003: The US begins its invasion of Iraq citing concerns over Iraq’s alleged biological and WMD programmes. US officials indicate that the United States will remove its sanctions on Libya if the Libya verifiably dismantles its WMD’s programmes.

August 15 2003 Libya agrees to compensate the victims of the Pan Am attack and accepts responsibility for the bombing.

December 19, 2003. Gaddafi renounces Libyan WMD program and invites international inspectors to verify weapons status. US and British officials hail the announcement.

January 18, 2004: US and British officials arrive in Libya to begin elimination and removal of WMD designs and stockpiles.

February 26, 2004: The US lifts its Libya travel ban and allows businesses to enter negotiations to re-acquire pre-sanctions holdings inside Libya.

September 20, 2004: Bush lifts most of its remaining sanctions on Libya.

October 11, 2004: European Union foreign ministers lift a 20 year-old arms embargo on Libya. Part of the EU rationale for lifting the embargo is to improve Libya’s capacity to patrol its own maritime borders to prevent illegal immigration to the EU from North Africa, a particular concern of southern European states such as Italy.

May 15, 2006: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announces the U.S. establishment of full diplomatic relations with Libya. President George W. Bush allows Libya to be removed from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

October 24, 2008 – according to Wikileaks, a diplomatic cable is sent warning that convicted Lockerbie suspect has terminal cancer and that his death in prison would threaten British security.  His release on compassionate grounds is considered.

August 20, 2009 - Mohmed Al-Megrahi is released from jail on compassionate grounds in yet another diplomatic success for Gaddafi.

But now here’s where things begin to go really pear-shaped for Gaddafi…

December 17, 2010: a 26 year old Tunisian street vendor. Mohamed Bouazizi, sets himself on fire in protest of the confiscation of his goods and the harassment inflicted on him by municipal officials.  His actions spark violent mass demonstrations which culminate in President Ben Ali stepping down on 14 January 2011 after 23 years in power.

The Tunisian protests begin to ripple throughout Arab nations, including Algeria, Yemen, Jordan and Egypt. Over in Tripoli, Gaddafi maybe gets a little edgy.

January 29, 2011: Libya signs a $1.8 billion arms deal with Russian, believed to cover tanks, fighter planes and air defence systems. Not sure if you can believe that?  Check out the Reuters announcement of 30 January. 

February 11, 2011: Hosni Mubarak steps down as president of Egypt after 30 years in power.

February 15, 2011: Civil protests begin in earnest in Libya. Unlike the opposition movements in other Arab nations, Gaddafi’s opposition reveals itself to be heavily armed.  When Gaddafi retaliates with military power, the conflict quickly escalates into a full blown civil war.

February 17, 2011: Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom signs an agreement to take a 50% stake in Libyan oil field with estimated reserves of 110 million tonnes of oil.

February 25, 2011: Citing security concerns, Barack Obama issues Executive Order 13566 banning the import of all oil from Libya.

February 27, 2011: a Transitional National Council is formed by Libyan opposition members to act as the political wing of the armed rebellion.

March 14, 2011, French oil giant Total says conflict in Libya has slashed Libyan oil output from 1.4 million barrels a day to under 300,000. On the same day, Hilary Clinton travels to France and arrives at Le Bourget Airport in Paris as pictured by the New York Times (below). After dining with foreign ministers of the G8 group, she meets Libyan opposition leader, Mahmoud Jibril, at her Paris hotel for diplomatic talks.

March 16, 2011: Gaddafi meets with Russian, Indian and Chinese ambassadors and invites proposals from those countries to increase their stakes in the production and exploitation of Libyan oil.

March 17, 2011: the UN Security Council passes the pivotal resolution 1973 which authorizes member states "to take all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack” in Libya.  Any half decent international lawyer should have noticed that the conjunctive phrase “civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack” means that any vague "area" in which there are civilians, including areas where civilians are under no threat of attack, will also fall within the ambit of the resolution if any armed rebel forces are under threat of attack in those vague areas. The resolution therefore authorises support for the armed rebels in all populated areas of Libya.

Notably, Russia and China, two of the 5 permanent members of the UN security council with veto powers, abstain from voting on the resolution. India, a temporary member, also abstains. The US, France and United Kingdom vote in favour. While my own view is that a resolution authorizing civilian protection was called for, the wording of resolution 1973 was flawed. In any event, the first signs of a split between members of the security council over Libya are now obvious. 

Following the resolution, NATO airstrikes against Gaddafi forces commence.

April 26 2011: Barack Obama amends his executive order of 25 February and permits US oil imports from areas of Libya now falling under the control of the rebels and the Transitional National Council. A copy of his executive order is available at http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/libya_oil_gas.pdf.

If you've read this far, hopefully the above chronology has been informative. What all of this detailed background to the present situation in Libya underscores for me is that the interpretation of any issue will generally be framed by one’s values and perspectives and just as vague expressions like “necessary means” depend on an interpretation of words like “necessary”, so the ultimate liberation of Libyan civilians is going to require a long, hard look at the meaning of liberty itself. Hopefully Libyan civilians will experience a more peaceful liberty than Iraqis have to date but the Libyan war still seems some way from over.

I believe that the US is sincerely motivated by the desire for a better government in Libya for the benefit of Libyan people and I do not believe that the Russian and Chinese abstentions at the UN and their condemnation of the Nato strikes is linked to the lucrative deals those nations were able to strike with the Gaddafi regime. But what I am also concerned about is that while the "Cold War" between the US and Russia may be a thing of the past, an "Icy Peace" based on different cultural and economic perspectives might have replaced it.

In a time of diminishing natural resources... (which is intended to be read like the opening line of a movie trailer), where international energy and security policies are so closely linked as to be virtually indistinguishable, the survival of the planet hinges on management of the earth’s natural resources (& not Ben Affleck).

Unfortunately, institutions like the United Nations, OPEC and the International Energy Agency are historically and culturally grounded in a security v energy paradigm and deference to national state sovereignty over energy and security affairs. Those institutional values play a deep role in the formation, interpretation and implementation of day to day policies. Until those institutional cultures evolve towards a shared global resource management paradigm that is better suited for our times, the planet’s natural resources will repeatedly be caught up in standoffs between western and eastern superpowers and wars will persist in the spaces between them.