Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam, cousin of the late Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar Gaddafi, has given an exclusive interview to RT where he clearly explains just how much of a failed state Libya has become since Britain and France led a war on the country, a war whose political mastermind and strongest agitator was Hillary Clinton, then Barack Obama’s Secretary of State.
Five years after the war, Libya is not only a failed state but a state that could be accurately described as one where various clans of pirates are fighting various bands of terrorists, including ISIS and Al-Qaeda, for control of Libya’s territory and resources.
Libya under Gaddafi was a wealthy country with high living standards, near 100% literacy (whereas most Libyans prior to the 1st September Revolution of 1969 were illiterate), and safety from terrorism was the rule of the day. Even George W. Bush saw fit to mend bridges with Gaddafi and cooperate with him in his ‘war on terror’. But this spirit of cooperation did last not, especially not after Gaddafi proposed putting Libya and eventually most of Africa on a gold backed dinar, thus ending dollar dependency.
The war has devastated a wealthy, peaceful and prosperous country.
Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam described the situation in the following way,
“The war, the destruction of Libya, all that, in their own words, was a mistake. (The West) recognized that they caused the overthrow of a revolutionary regime in Libya. All of them, first of all, should apologize and correct all that they’d done. But the suffering Libyan people, living in basements, forced to flee their homes, see nothing of the sort six years on. No one even talks about it today. What is happening in Libya is a crime from all points of view”.
He is right in saying that all ordinary Libyans have been devastated by the war. Even in Iraq, a country far more politically divided than Libya ever was, many former Saddam sceptics or outright opponents admit freely that Iraq was better for all Iraqis prior to 2003.
In Libya the situation is even worse. Where Iraq is slowly trying to re-build itself into a country again, all the while contending with the presences of ISIS in their Mosul stronghold, Libya looks increasingly hopeless.
Ahmed Gaddaf is right in saying,
“On this anniversary of the Arab Spring, we must demand an apology to all Libyans – those whose homes were destroyed, those who were humiliated. On their behalf, I demand that the UN Security Council and the leading world powers apologize for what happened in 2011”.
An apology is necessary but what is even more necessary is a concerted international effort to re-build the failed state which currently cannot even agree if its fledgling, failed government is in Tripoli or Benghazi.
It is difficult to even suggest a solution. As a neighbour and the most populace state in the Arab world, Egypt would be the most appropriate foreign power to help rebuild Libya and make it a state again, but this would take a great deal of political will and exertion of power from Cairo, there may not be the will among President Sisi’s top brass to do so.
Continued NATO involvement would almost certainly make a bad thing worse. Russia is remote from the situation and without the clear legal political mandate Russia has in Syria, it is unlikely Russia would get involved.
Problems in Libya are countless. Solutions are few.
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