The Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has once again appeared on state TV, vowing to fight on. A series of blasts have reportedly rocked the Libyan capital as Colonel Gaddafi continues to hold on. Several towns near Tripoli are now in the hands of the opposition. But witnesses say one of them has come under air attack, and forces loyal to Gaddafi have retaken a nearby oil facility. Meanwhile, the US is flexing its military muscle, moving its naval forces closer to Libya, and triggering speculation of possible strikes. The UK's also not ruling out the use of force. The international storm's gathering over the Libyan leader, with the UN suspending the country from its Human Rights Council. It also calls for a mass humanitarian evacuation for people caught up in the crisis. As world pressure mounts, RT's Laura Emmett reports on whether NATO's ready for a new war.
The Threats of NATO Intervention and U.S. and E.U. Control over Libya
Libya has been in the cross-hairs of the Pentagon for years. According to Wesley Clark, the retired general who was the supreme military commander of NATO, Libya was on a Pentagon list of nations to be invaded after Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The list included Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, and lastly Iran. In Clark’s own words:
So I came back to see him [a high ranking military officer in the Pentagon] a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defence’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” [18]
In one way or another all the nations on the list have been attacked directly or indirectly and all of them, but Syria and Iran, have succumbed to the U.S. and its allies. Again, the only exceptions are Iran and its ally Syria. In Lebanon, the U.S. has made partial gains, but it is now receding with the decline of the Hariri-led March 14 Alliance.
Libya started secret negotiations with Washington in 2001 that materialized into formal rapprochement after the fall of Baghdad to British and American troops in 2003. Yet, the U.S. and its allies have always wanted to expand their influence over the Libyan energy sector and to appropriate Libya’s vast wealth. A civil war provides the best cover for this.(www.globalresearch.ca)
Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa, at more than 3 per cent of the global total – and there could be a lot more undiscovered. Libya is not the only African nation in turmoil. Somalia’s drawn-out conflict has been called ‘a slow genocide’. But there’s little sign of US or European military input. And it is a similar story on the other side of the continent.
“There are events unfolding in the Ivory Coast where there is also an armed conflict between rebels and the government, but nobody seems to be thinking of that,” said John Laughland from the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation. “It’s only because fashionable attention is focused on Libya – oil but also for the political implications of the Middle East as a whole. We all know that the West including Britain has got its hands very dirty with the Libyan leadership over the recent years.”
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