http://blog.dawn.com/2011/03/07/the-global-game-of-power/

The global game of power
by Faisal Kapadia on 03 7th, 2011 
 
The world has watched in jubilation the scenes of revolution in Tunisia, Egypt 
and Bahrain over the last few weeks. In each instance, the populace of the 
country in question has peacefully demanded change and has managed to achieve 
it, either in the shape of a change in government or concessions being made by 
ruling despots to adjust to the will of the people. I refer to these rulers as 
despots because that is what I regard them to be - puppets put in place by 
their facilitators in the west, to keep their citizens unaware, which allows 
them to equally share the great bounty of liquid gold they sit upon, amongst 
their own nefarious families and with their western counterparts in the form of 
oft hidden contracts.

Funnily enough, until the revolution reached Libya, the western world was 
content in issuing placid calls for negotiation and dialogue as well the need 
for their appointed rulers to "change as per today's requirements" even though 
in the case of each country, extreme violence was used by the ruling 
authorities to quash the public uprising.

However now that Col.Qadhafi's government is using the same heavy handedness 
displayed previously in Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia, the Nato allies are up in 
arms at the seriousness of the situation with the American forces on standby to 
come to the "aid" of the Libyan people if necessary within the hour, Ms Clinton 
has offered "any kind of assistance".

Add to this, the American Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on CNN "If it's 
ordered, we can do it," but imposing a no-fly zone "begins with an attack on 
Libya to destroy the air defenses." Welcome to war hysteria ladies and 
gentlemen in its third, or is it the fourth edition now? US senators are 
comparing the situation in Libya to Yugoslavia while British PM David Cameron 
and other western leaders fear the use of chemical weapons by Qadhafi. Remember 
the WMD scare in Iraq?

The heads of various states are also talking about the precarious and urgent 
need for a no-fly zone over Libya. Obviously none of this has anything to do 
with the fact that Libya is an oil rich country with a per capita income of USD 
14,000, which is also close to the $10 billion, 4,128 kilometre long 
trans-Saharan gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria, expected to be functional 
by 2015. The same country which was until very recently praised by the IMF for 
having "continued efforts to modernise and diversify the economy" and lauded 
for its "efforts to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy".

I think the Libyans need to be very, very careful. For in bringing about their 
revolution, they might just make the mistake of replacing their own despot for 
the ones who control him in the first place. The harbingers of democracy are 
looking at a very small, very oily window of opportunity here, which needs to 
be closed very quickly by those in charge of the revolution in Libya. As 
rightly pointed out by the human-rights lawyer, Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga: "We are 
against any foreign intervention or military intervention in our internal 
affairs.This revolution will be completed by our people with the liberation of 
the rest of Libyan territory controlled by Qadhafi's forces."

"Our" being the key word here, for it is very easy to be swept away in the 
glamour of heroic revolution and then look back to only see that the country 
which was going to be uplifted by its population by the said heroics, was only 
being used as a pawn in the global game of power. As the old saying goes 
"beware of greeks bearing gifts".

Faisal Kapadia is a Karachi-based entrepreneur and writer. He blogs at Deadpan 
Thoughts.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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