Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Hypocrisy and Double Standards of the Western Powers in Libya is laughable if not pathetic

When the uprising started in North Africa and spread to other parts of the Middle East one saw it as a people’s movement. The uprising and the determination of the people caught the regimes and their Western allies by surprise.


It will be observed that all the regimes that are  fallingapart are ones that were aligned to Western powers. They were autocratic and suppressed their people’s freedoms while the Western powers watched and enjoyed the benefits of such oppression.
Libya has followed a different path because Gaddafi has refused to surrender and has promised to fight to the end. The Western powers want him out because it gives them an opening for their occupation considering that they are fast losing control of the region due to the uprisings.

 
One cannot however not forget that Gaddafi is the only North African leader who for a long time aligned with Sub -Sahara African nations. In the early years Gaddafi funded the African National congress in South Africa at a time that the Western powers considered Nelson Mandela a Terrorist.

Gaddafi has also been vocal about the formation of a united States of Africa and has been the chairman of the African Union. Perhaps this is why Hilary Clinton on the 28th of February 2011 at the United Nations Human Rights council was quick to suggest that Gaddafi was using African mercenaries to kill his people.

There has been no evidence of such accusations, to this writers knowledge, instead what has happened is to put working African immigrant in harms way. Many have been Killed by Libyans on the guise that they were mercenaries based on Clinton’s allegations and on the color of their skin.

For a long time Gaddafi had negative relationship with Western powers and was a revolutionary at heart. In the 90’s and 20’s his leadership changed as he got involved in too many causes, some good and some not so good. He eventualy succumbed to Western powers demands and like the other falling regimes, has enjoyed amicable relationship with them.

However since the uprising in Libya started, the Western powers have adopted their normal game of acting as the good guys helping the people dismantle a dictator. As the Libyans gets divided between those fighting against Gaddafi and those supporting him we are again witnessing the hypocrisy or is it opportunism of Western powers.

Seumas Milne writing for the Guardian Newspaper so aptly says “The same western leaders who happily armed and did business with the Gaddafi regime until a fortnight ago have now slapped sanctions on the discarded autocrat and blithely referred him to the international criminal court the United States won’t recognize”.

Read more: http://newsflavor.com/world/middle-east/the-hypocrisy-and-double-standards-of-the-western-powers-in-libya-is-laughable-if-not-pathetic/#ixzz1JNXSUmqb

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