It's rare that pretty epic and long running stories like the ongoing struggle in Libya between the rebels and Ghaddafi come about, and pick up so much attention. What started out as a few protests, turned into a protestor crushing excercise by the security forces, and then quickly turned into something else entirely within weeks if not days. Libya is now effectively in a state of civil war.
Mercifully the rebels seem to be at least for the most part of the pretty democratic variety, making claims by Ghaddafi that they are Bin Laden fans on crack somewhat unconvincing to say the least. The rebels seem to have taken control of much of the east of the country. They have a real chance at removing Ghaddafi and creating....well something else as yet undetermined in his place. There is no love lost really between us and the Ghaddafi regime. We scared them something stupid about 5 years ago with the removing of Saddam Hussein from power into giving up his WMDs, as far as we know that is. Our government even went sligthly overboard in our new friendliness towards the Libyans, by sending our elite SAS troopers over to train the army that is now slaughtering the rebels. A nice turn of political amnesia mixed pure shamelessness lead this week, to Ed Miliband calling the Coalition incompetent in foriegn affairs, conveniently forgetting among other things that particular episode with the SAS under HIS party leader's premiership. It seems everyone has an opinion on how to proceed with dealing with the current state of affairs. I applaud the enthusiasm for discussion, although the longer this goes on I wonder what will be left once we get down to options.
Last year I read a brilliant book on the Spanish Civil War by Anthony Beevor. This precursor to WWII essentially involved the Spanish Republican and Nationalist factions fighting each other. While this got on we largely took an observer approach, and tried to enforce an arms embargo and basically bullied all of Europe bar Germany and Italy from joining in and arming either side. This approach essentially lead to the Fascist powers arming (and in some cases fighting for) the nationalists (who already had good access to arms stockpiles and manufacturing centres), and the Republicans materially deprived for fear on the part of the western democracies arming commies. What we got in return was a facist dictatorship in Spain that lasted 30 years, not exactly a great legacy of keeping order in one's backyard.
In some ways I can almost clearly see a tragic and at the same time frustrating ending to this possibly eventual debacle. Some practical ideas have been floated around. One of them (at least on paper) is an idea floated by David Cameron to impose a no fly zone. Interesting point David. Sure enough, I hear from Frank Gardner the BBC Security Correspondent that Ghadaffi has a fleet of helicopter gunships, perfect for mowing down pesky rebels. But now the US all of a sudden throwing history to the wind, has actually decided to consult the UN on this before acting and may actually heed it's advice. What frustrates me is this is nearly a fortnight or so since the shooting has started, and we are still talking. Not just talking but talking ABOUT.........talking. And by the time we have done this what then? Will there even be anything to be acted on? What about arming? A Conservative backbencher this week openly advocated arming the rebels, and I have to say I am almost persuaded.
Then again one has to look at Africa and the obvious question comes: is an injection of arms and munitions a healthy solution by a continent with a depressing history of continous war? A difficult moral conundrum if ever I have seen one.
What is frustrating me more nowadays is the inverted logic used by those who reject any notion of practical action on the Libyan crisis. The name Iraq is annoyingly, and in my view quite unnecessarily on the tip of many people's lips. While there is some merit in bringing that skeleton out of the closet, it can inconveniently cloud our judgement, and make us forget that was a situation with very unique circumstances. All wars are different, just as there are similarities between them. The horrors of the Iraq one I fear, will steal away our balanced judgement today.
At times like this I feel an almost uncontrollable urge to grab Tony Blair by the collar, and punch him in the nose repeatedly, and howl at him with a bloody rage. And then in no uncertain terms express my displeasure at his past actions (and inactions) cursing this country into raising a new generation of people in this country. One that is deeply cynical in many ways, and take events for granted on the world stage. Like someone passively watching a town go by, while sitting next to a window on the train. The cynicism of some people has reduced them to the most ridiculous arguments. The so called "Arab Spring Uprisings" have lead many people to the conclusion that the Arab world largely consists of countries ruled by dictators or at the very least petulent playboys. But when it comes to dicussions about action in this crisis, it's "WHOA SLOW YOUR ROLL THERE". "Let's go and talk to those wisened statesmen over there" and those wisened statesmen just happened to be the members of the Arab League, at which that person a few minutes ago was spitting venom at. I think one only needs to look at the state of Palestine, to consider how wise the judgement of the Arab League really is. Last time I checked it was more of a warzone than a utopia.
If you will take anything away from this rant (apart from utter confusion and bewilderment), then here it is in a nutshell. I am all for discussion. But sometimes, the worse thing to do is to do nothing, or the same things again which haven't worked before (like the sanctions we used some 20 years ago, that we are now reinstating on Ghaddafi). But Libya may be presenting us with a rare oppurtunity. We are as a nation state always apprehensive about what the Arab world think of us. I ask, what will they think of us if we are still eating crumpets and watching the fireworks when the lights of Benghazi go out? That's all for now.
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