Today,
the following lines were printed in an article on the website of
Aljazeera,
which along with the BBC, The New
York Times
and other imperialist news outlets has spread lies and disinformation
about the conflict in Libya, acting as an integral part of the NATO
war and current offensive on Tripoli:“Aiding the Libyan
rebel forces of the National Transitional Council has created a debt
of gratitude. In the context of responsibility for what happens next
in Libya, an anonymous British official told the Economist
that NATO’s involvement in the Libyan uprising means that: ‘Now we
own it.’”
That
is a startling admission and really says it all. It should erase any
shred of doubt in people’s minds about the intentions of the United
States., Britain and France—the former colonizers and enslavers of
Africa—in regards to Libya. So, too, should any objective
examination of facts coming out about the military advance on
Tripoli.
In
fact it is not possible for the imperialist countries involved in the
war on Libya to finance and direct a lengthy military operation
against an independent and sovereign nation without intending to gain
in return the “ownership” of the besieged country’s resources
and markets. Libya has
the largest known oil reserves in Africa.
To
carry out such a military, political and media operation, the
imperialists expect, at the minimum, to set up a puppet neo-colonial
government like the ones in Afghanistan and Iraq to help facilitate
the plundering of Libya and its oil. Anything less than that bargain
will place any new government in Libya in the identical crosshairs
that the Gaddafi government has been in for the last 42 years!
The
puppet in waiting “Transitional National Council” is touring
Europe to beg Libya’s former colonizers, who are reducing the
country to rubble, to release $5 billion in the country’s assets to
them.
By
what right do U.S. and European institutions have the authority to
decide the fate of Libya’s wealth? The only thing that gives them
that right is imperialist oppression and aggression.
At
a press conference with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi where Italy
promised to “release” Libyan funds to the TNC as if it were
payment for a job well done, TNC representative Mahmoud Jibril said,
“The destabilization inside Tripoli and other parts of the country
would really be beyond control without steady funding.” This is a
frank and outright public admission that the TNC cannot and will not
rule in Libya without direct support from the former colonizers, in
the event that NATO wins the war.
Tonight,
a TNC official supposedly held the first news briefing from Tripoli.
Who was the first TNC official to speak from Tripoli to proclaim the
“new government”? Fittingly, it was the oil and finance minister,
Ali Tahouni, who declared that the rebels had transferred their
leadership bodies to Tripoli.
Tripoli
offensive planned for months
The
entire offensive against Tripoli has been made possible not through
an uprising of the masses or a “rebel” army that has the support
of the people nor a popular wish to overthrow a “tyrant,” but by
a highly coordinated terrorist assault unleashed by NATO against
civilians, whole neighborhoods and the institutions and armed forces
of Libya.
The mainstream press has widely reported that CIA
and MI6 agents are on the ground in Tripoli, directing the bombing
and strafing campaign. According to the CBS News,
British, French and British-trained Qatari special forces led the
much-publicized assault on the Gaddafi compound in coordination with
British warplanes.
In the assaults of Tawarga and Zlitan, the
same foreign special forces led the assault that overran the cities
on the way to Tripoli. On the night of Aug. 21, a flanking maneuver
by the Libyan army that might have cut off the advance on Tripoli
from the east was reportedly halted by NATO warplanes.
In
the Zlitan offensive, NATO targeted civilians, killing 85 people. On
Aug. 21, NATO bombing killed 1,300 people in Tripoli. Neighborhoods
in the capital of Libya are being bombed and city streets strafed by
NATO warplanes, in order to “soften” areas up for “rebel”
advance.
According to CBS News, on the same day that NATO was
slaughtering civilians, rebels preparing for the assault of Tripoli
were chanting, “We are coming for you, frizz-head.”
According
to the BBC: “Migrant African workers stranded in Libya are
terrified they will be mistaken for pro-Gaddafi mercenaries and
attacked or detained by the rebels, Antonio Guterres, the UN’s high
commissioner for refugees tells the AP news agency. ‘Their
testimony is the testimony of despair, they feel trapped, they cannot
move,’ he says of the thousands thought to be stranded there.”
The
Associated Press reported Aug. 25 that in Tripoli,
“Rebels were hauling away prisoners, some of them with an African
appearance.“
A
British soldier taking part in the operations is quoted in a Guardian
article on Aug. 25 relating that before the current offensive led by
NATO forces on the ground, which is characterized by extensive air
support, the lightly armed rebels were unable to make meaningful
advances against well-trained, equipped and dedicated Libyan troops.
Numerous other sources have reported that the invasion of Tripoli was
planned months in advance and some rebel troops were trained by
foreign advisors for weeks in preparation for the advance on the
capital.
In
other words, the five-month-long bombing campaign against
infrastructure and civilians carried out by NATO, along with economic
sanctions, demonization campaigns and a naval blockade, was not about
protecting civilians nor for any other humanitarian reasons, but
about terrorizing the people of Libya in preparation for invading
Tripoli and overthrowing the Libyan government under NATO’s direct
leadership.
Maybe
for some individual rebels the fight is about Gaddafi, but for the
NATO powers they are unleashing their military might against the
people of Libya solely to reduce the country to its knees so NATO can
dictate the terms of surrender.
Resistance
to NATO continues
After
six days of fighting, Libyan troops continue to hold out against the
NATO offensive. Despite daily proclamations that the battle is all
but over, Gaddafi and government spokesmen Moussa Ibrahim have made
daily statements to the press, urging the people to fight on. None of
Gaddafi’s sons have been captured.
Government
forces have held onto whole neighborhoods in Tripoli despite heavy
bombing and the use of highly destructive gunships against the
population.
Libyan
troops have conducted numerous offensives against the rebels that
have been under-reported in the mainstream press, including
surrounding rebel fighters on the border of Tunisia, pinning fighters
down on the road to Sirte with numerous ambushes and staging
coordinated attacks in areas of Tripoli supposedly held by rebels.
Missiles continue to be launched on the rebel held Misrata.
On
Aug. 25, Libyan troops attacked the rebel positions around the
Corinthian Hotel and the airport, which are supposedly in
rebel-controlled areas of the city. In nearly every area of Tripoli,
government fighters continue to harass NATO troops. Even Gaddafi’s
destroyed compound has not been secured by the rebels.
An
outcome favorable to the U.S. and NATO is not in the people’s
interest. It would pose a grave danger to the aspirations of Africa
and to other independent countries like Syria and Venezuela currently
in the crosshairs.
Though it is difficult to tell with precision what is
happening on the ground in Tripoli and the rest of Libya, it is clear
at the time of this writing that the fighting is not over and there
is obviously no mass support for NATO and the rebels within Tripoli
and many parts of the country. Though imperialism has used a vast
array of weapons and propaganda against Libya, the Libyan masses, who
have poured out into the streets of Tripoli on numerous occasions to
oppose the NATO bombing, have the potential to tip the scales of this
war and repel the NATO colonizers.
U.S. and
NATO Out of Libya Now!
