One clear lesson that Iraq’s unjust, illegal and devastating invasion by George Bush and Tony Blair offered was that the countries with diverse population groups – where the rulers despite being ruthless towards their opponents, managed to give the vast majority of population a reasonably good lifestyle – were best left alone to progress and attain democracy at their own pace and in their own time.
This is because interfering in such countries makes things thousand times worse for the country and its people. See how Iraq has been devastated and a people enjoying a fair living standard turned into a nation of paupers. And this comes on top of nearly a million innocent Iraqis killed with many times of that wounded and giving rise to monsters like Daesh the likes of which Saddam Hussein would have nipped in the bud.
However, this clear lesson was ignored, and Libya and Syria made to suffer the same fate by the western nations, of course with the help of some Muslim states as well. The current situation in these countries clearly indicate that giving people democracy, as claimed by the western countries, was never their real objective.
In case of Libya and Syria, it was the international ploy to reestablish imperialism through multi-national companies in order to gain complete control over the mineral resources of the victim countries.
It is a fact that despite his many failings, like being somewhat ruthless with his opponents, Col. Moammar Gaddafi had managed to hold the country together and to give the vast majority of people a reasonably high standard of living with things improving all the time. And the man behind most of the reforms was his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a western-educated person and heir-apparent.
But of course, the western politicians were not concerned about Libya or Libyans. All they were interested in was gaining control over Libya’s energy resources and saw Muammar Gaddafi as a great hurdle to their plans, as he guarded the national resources jealously.
So, as far as western politicians were concerned, strong-willed Muammar Gaddafi had to be replaced by a weak government which would continuously look up to the west for help and do their bidding. And they managed to achieve their objective most ruthlessly, by not only creating circumstances for the brutal killing of Muammar Gaddafi but also devastating the whole of Libya, much like what they had done to Iraq and Iraqis earlier.
And it is the same story with Syria. The western governments considered Bashar al-Assad as a big hurdle to their plans of gaining control over vast gas reserves found in the Syrian coast and to take it to Europe through an under-sea pipeline, in order to replace supplies from Russia.
In these circumstances, the possible come-back in politics by participating in the forthcoming Presidential elections of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, as reported in the western press, is welcome news. He has the experience of running the government, has a good following among various tribes in Libya, and is one person who could bring Libyans together and put the country on the path of peace, progress and prosperity.
The Libyans have suffered immensely already, and it is definitely time for them to forget about the bitter past and chart a clear path for placing the country on a sound footing again and doing it as speedily as possible in order to make up for the lost time. By now, they would definitely have learned as to who their real enemies are and not be deceived by their feigned sympathy, support and offer of help.
I hope the Libyans will rally around Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in large numbers, and thus take the first step towards the process of putting the country back on a sound footing.
