No-Fly Zone to Stop the No-Flow of Oil in Libya

What the Arabs are doing right now is absolutely not about oil or Israel, it’s not some false flag operations meant to deceive anybody, on the contrary it is a loud and clear message that Arabs are fed with deception and that they can’t tolerate corruption and dictatorship anymore, though deception never fades away.

It’s about Arabs and their voices heard may be for the first time in a long time. And since many had believed that Arabs were politically mute, they just couldn’t believe this was actually happening.

These whole revolutions are about Arabs and their long forgotten rights and freedom. The domino effect, strange as it might seem to many but it is a sure sign that the Arab world is like one big nation inhabited by closely related citizens with relatively the same collective psyche, sharing the same history and land and aspiring for the same change that would bring about-hopefully- a better future for them all.

Unconquerable masses of Egyptians in Tahrir Square.

That said, it will be a matter of time before the whole Arab world engage in this historic cycle of change and it wouldn’t be unlikely to see these uprisings reaching as far as Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Damascus in Syria and Ramallah in Palestine, as a matter of fact people there already began rallying calling for democracy and a united Palestinian political front that would bridge the gap between PLO and Hamas.

These popular uprisings have revealed more insights into the socio-political dynamics of the modern Arab world; they have clearly showed how much corrupt the Arabic regimes are and how far they would go to cling to and stay in power.
This rampant corruption has spread to almost all Arabic governments’ policies and institutions and with the lack of free speech the Arab nations ranked high only on the world record of suppressing dissent and torture.

And as the Arab tyrant presidents and kings were rated amongst the top billionaires of the world, their nations and people kept their wretched place in the underdeveloped swamp.
The uprisings taking place now in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen with the fierce crack down on protesters give an obvious demonstration that the autocratic regimes there will not give up without a fight.

This page of history, this transitional phase toward democracy in the Arab world won’t be nice and smooth or without any disappointments; the change the Arabs long for will not be attained without sacrifice. The blood that has been spilled over the streets of Cairo, Sanaa, Manama and Benghazi testified to the willingness of Arabs to pay the price of freedom.

Libya, the bloody side of the Arab uprisings

The violence witnessed in Libya and the madness of Gaddafi in confronting the rebellion could have been the same scenario in the rest of the Arabic countries hadn’t it been for variations of the geo-political and demographic situations in other Arab states. For example, the population of the Libyans is about 5 million people scattered over a vast land area, compared to Egypt, the whole Libyans would have been just about the expected number of people to occupy only the Tahrir square and the heart of Cairo.
So, as those masses of millions of enthusiastic Egyptians have molded into titanic waves of angry protesters that seemed unconquerable by any means- diplomatic or military- especially with the main stream media covering the historic event by the minute, where as Libya with its tribal demographic pattern along with a psycho paranoid as the head of the state had been the right candidate for the most unfortunate and agonizing military onslaught to crush the rebellion there.

These revolutions are the embodiment of the saying “power to the people” … they have clearly showed that the will and power of the people cannot be disregarded nor overcome. On the other hand, the bloodshed and the brutal military violence that erupted in the rich with oil Libya have been what seemed like the right moment for the international forces to step in and try to have a share in steering these compassless and seemingly bound nowhere revolutions.

The UN passed resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya – which came rather late- is not exactly the revival of European and American chivalry, and president Sarkozy of France cannot be, all of a sudden, king Arthur of the 21st century.
Libya with its huge reserve and flow of vital oil to Europe & the United States could not and should not be left alone in the hands of some maniac and political outcast like Gaddafi to be drifted into some civil war that only god knows when it will come to an end. This is unacceptable under any circumstances, be it a popular uprising or not so popular, the crucial thing is that this no-fly zone must stop this no-flow of oil from Libya to Europe and USA, a situation that if kept going could drag a newly recovered western economy back to recession.

France adopting UN no-fly zone over Libya resolution despite European split

Bewildered and outpaced by the way things are getting out of control in North Africa and by what happened in Tunisia – that used to be a French colonial territory – the Elysee made sure that this political blunder would not happen again not in Algeria and definitely not in Libya. That’s why president sarkozy has taken the lead, saved the day for a reluctant USA and acted like the knight in shining armour ready to sail to Libya and help free its oppressed people.

Europe and the United States are now contemplating the post- uprising Arab world and with their long in power puppet heads of regimes in the region gone with the wind of change the west is bound to come to terms with this new reality on the Arab world ground, namely the will of the Arab people who will definitely not take kindly to any suspected act of another western invasion of their arab land.
And in doing so, the coalition forces acting now in Libya backed by a consent from the Arab League will be walking a fine line – especially the united states- trying to stick to the part of the savior and at the same time to distance themselves from the role of the occupier who is willing to order and deploy troops on the ground.

Haunted by the Iraqi nightmare, will the coalition forces be able to get the mission accomplished in Libya … and how long will it take before the Pentagon communicates the Egyptian military generals and asks for some Egyptian infantry battalions to be engaged on the ground to finalize this costly and unpredictable Odyssey Dawn operation.

For more articles by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat visit his website