Libya etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
Libya etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
28 Mart 2011 Pazartesi
Libya: A survivor under siege
Resplendent in state robes and his trademark black tribal cap, he delivered a typically fiery speech from a spot that symbolises his ability to survive amid his nation’s cut-throat tribal politics – atop the ruins of the vast Tripoli compound destroyed by an air strike in 1986, the last American attempt to unseat him.
A quarter of a century after that attack, he clings stubbornly to power. Despite the destruction of his military at the hands of British, French, and American air power, he told the crowd brought to the compound to act as his human shield that he would never surrender. “We are ready for the fight, whether it will be a short or a long one,” he declared.
Such swaggering defiance is the trademark of the cornered tyrant. Yet it also underscores an uncomfortable truth facing an international community desperate to see the end of Colonel Gaddafi’s rule: tyrants are often hard to remove.
With his amazon female bodyguard, elaborate outfits and incoherent diatribes, it is easy to dismiss Col Gaddafi as just another dictator who has let power go to his head. But mere megalomania does not explain his survival since he took power by force in 1969. Those who have met him speak of the razor-sharp focus, manipulative style and instinctive understanding of how to wield power that has carried him through attempted coups and assassinations.
While western military action might have consolidated Col Gaddafi’s remaining political support base, however, it has emboldened others too – not just in the rebel-held east but also in government strongholds. In Tripoli, dissatisfaction with the regime appeared to resurface this week as the effects of air strikes and sanctions were felt. Five weeks after the protests started residents could once again be heard murmuring their opposition to Col Gaddafi, telling foreign journalists that they would attempt to stage fresh protests.
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Bleak history lessons for Libya’s future
This year sees the 25th anniversary of the publication of Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers, a text on how best to use lessons of the past. It provides a corollary to the aphorism that those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it. This is especially relevant in Libya, where history has been enlisted to make the case both for and against military intervention.
Those making the moral case for action, including President Barack Obama, often cite the need to avoid repeating the failure to intervene in Rwanda in 1994. Those arguing for no-fly zones recall northern Iraq, or the former Yugoslavia. But none of these is an exact fit. Unlike Rwanda, Libyan society is not structured along a single or dominant ethnic faultline. And Muammer Gaddafi’s threat to show no mercy to his opponents might have been just that: a threat, within the context of a civil uprising, to intimidate those who opposed him with arms. It was not necessarily a threat to every man, woman and child in Benghazi.
Plotting the way forward in Libya
Libya has been pulled back from the brink. In spite of fears that western countries might have entered the fray too late, their air power has swiftly checked Muammer Gaddafi’s attempt to extinguish the uprising against him.
But while Colonel Gaddafi’s murderous juggernaut has been stopped, he has not been defeated. The opposition is retaking territory, but victory is not guaranteed. There is little sign that its forces have the military and logistical ability to take the fight to Tripoli.
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