Ongoing Western bombing of targets in Libya illustrates the deceitfulness of the Nato powers which insist that they are simply fulfilling the terms of UN resolution 1973.
The resolution authorised member states "to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form."
It also ordered a no-fly zone to prevent the Gadaffi regime from launching aerial attacks on its opponents.The no-fly zone was imposed in short order, with the Pentagon declaring last week that the regime's air power had been neutralised, but still the bombing continues.
The most recent Nato aerial attacks on Sirte, assisting the advance by opposition forces, indicate military coordination for regime change rather than concern for civilian welfare.Events recall Washington's use of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in 2001, when concentrated US aerial bombing raids allowed alliance forces to drive back the Taliban.
As in Afghanistan so in Libya, the Western planes are not flying in support of anti-government forces.
Nato is directing the show, identifying its targets, hitting them and facilitating local rebel fighters' mopping up of disoriented pro-Gadaffi militias.The acute danger is of the Libyan rebels, who rose up demanding democratic reform and an end to state repression, being transformed unwittingly into the infantry shock troops in an imperialist stratagem.
French, Italian and British military intelligence agents have already held meetings with former Gadaffi supporters, now born-again democrats, to lay down terms for giving military backing to their insurrection.These terms include honouring the accords entered into by Gadaffi with imperialist governments and transnational corporations that are advantageous and profitable to the Western side.
The Western powers are essentially seeking a solution to the Libyan uprising that will have a democratic veneer but will entrench the country within the Nato/US masterplan for the region.This is not an argument against supporting the legitimate causes for which so many Libyans rose up in the first place.
It is, however, a recognition that the imperialist states, for all their rhetoric about democracy and human rights, place a higher priority on defence of corporate profits and strategic hegemony.That is why Washington and its allies chose to cut adrift their long-time catspaw Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, despite yelps of protest from Israel and Saudi Arabia which were united in wanting US backing to crush the Egyptian revolutionary upsurge.
Imperialism wants to see cosmetic change throughout north Africa and the Middle East, ensuring that its investments and oil contracts are safe, its military-political authority is acknowledged and regional collaboration with Israel continues to the detriment of the Palestinians.
That situation has not yet been achieved. The wheel has not stopped spinning in either Tunisia or Egypt where progressive voices are united against any such neocolonial outcome.Bahraini democratic forces demanding an end to the royal autocracy find themselves facing troops from Saudi Arabia and Qatar without any criticism from the West.
And the unmatched Israeli air force has stepped up its missile attacks on Gaza, killing Palestinian civilians with impunity.Western powers are no more kindly disposed to Libyans than to Bahrainis or Palestinians.
Awareness that imperialism's actions are dictated by its material interests should dictate labour movement opposition to ongoing Nato military action alongside support for revolutionary democratic change throughout the region.
The Morning Star
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