Libya's Gadhafi suffers the fate of the friendless
BY JONATHAN MANTHORPE, VANCOUVER SUN MARCH 21, 2011
==============================================
The air power intervention in Libya's civil war is a useful reminder that the international community and its members don't act out of principle.
They act for reasons of expediency and self-interest.
That's evident from the reasons why Libya last week became the subject of the United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing imposition of a "no-fly zone" and other Middle East countries, where despotic rulers are being equally brutal in confronting dissent, have not.
So Libyans are worth saving from the predations of their leader Moammar Gadhafi, but Yemenis have been left to their own devices in trying to oust their president of 33 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In contrast to Gadhafi, Saleh has been a western ally in helping to root out al-Qaida cells in Yemen, which is the family homeland of Osama bin Laden.
But with senior generals of evil reputation and questionable motives deserting Saleh to join the street protesters, and the president's days clearly numbered, the Western handsoff attitude may change.
The Shiite Muslim majority underclass in Bahrain has no outside support either in its demands from the Sunni Muslim royal family for a fair and representative government.
Indeed, neighbouring Saudi Arabia last week used its purpose-built causeway connection to the Bahrain island state to send in hundreds of troops in their high-end armoured cars to support King Hamad Al Khalifa against what he calls "an external plot." That plot, of course, is the suspicion -for which there is no evidence -that Iran, the heartland of the Shiite Muslim sect, is aiding and abetting its co-religionists in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia, where the Shiites are a large, oppressed and turbulent minority.
The Iranian regime with its aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons is near the top of Washington and Europe's hate list.
So the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain can pretty much do what they please, with confidence that their value to the Western powers as suppliers of oil and host to key military bases will outweigh any principled revulsion at the way they treat their citizens.
Syria's President Bashar Assad has no similar insurance policy as unrest spreads in and around the southern city of Deraa.
After security forces killed four people last week, demonstrators rampaged through several cities. They have set fire to government buildings including the offices of al-Assad's governing Baath party in the most serious uprising against the regime that has ruled Syria for nearly 50 years.
Al-Assad, a London dentist before inheriting the presidency from his father 11 years ago, has studiously rejected all overtures to align his country with the West and instead has dealt with North Korea on a failed scheme to acquire nuclear weapons and with Iran on manipulating the politics of neighbouring Lebanon.
But al-Assad still has some friends and alliances, which puts him in a slightly better position than Libya's Gadhafi, who has none.
That is what has made Gadhafi such an easy target for the UN resolution permitting "all necessary measures" to prevent him using extreme violence to put down the uprisings against his regime.
In his 42 years in power, Gadhafi's meddlesome ways have alienated almost every leader not only in the Middle East, but also Africa.
Thus, when last week public opinion in the United States and much of Europe demanded that something must be done to support the Libyan rebels, Western leaders were able to get support from the Arab League and the African Union. Without that support the UN resolution could not have been passed and intervention would not have been possible.
Support from Libya's neighbours was also essential in persuading China and Russia not to use their vetoes on the Security Council and instead to simply abstain on the intervention vote.
China usually takes what it says is a principled stand on the non-use of violence to solve international disputes and a philosophical objection to intervention in general.
But Beijing's principles are as malleable as those of everyone else.
Last week Beijing decided those principles were outweighed by the demands of maintaining the friendship of the Arab and African worlds.
Mind you, the Arab League's Secretary-General Amr Moussa is now expressing outrage that the imposition of a no-fly zone is putting Libyan civilians at risk.
But Moussa is likely to run for the presidency of Egypt in six months' time and a smidgen of anti-Americanism always helps a political career in the region.
The air power intervention in Libya's civil war is a useful reminder that the international community and its members don't act out of principle.
They act for reasons of expediency and self-interest.
That's evident from the reasons why Libya last week became the subject of the United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing imposition of a "no-fly zone" and other Middle East countries, where despotic rulers are being equally brutal in confronting dissent, have not.
So Libyans are worth saving from the predations of their leader Moammar Gadhafi, but Yemenis have been left to their own devices in trying to oust their president of 33 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In contrast to Gadhafi, Saleh has been a western ally in helping to root out al-Qaida cells in Yemen, which is the family homeland of Osama bin Laden.
But with senior generals of evil reputation and questionable motives deserting Saleh to join the street protesters, and the president's days clearly numbered, the Western handsoff attitude may change.
The Shiite Muslim majority underclass in Bahrain has no outside support either in its demands from the Sunni Muslim royal family for a fair and representative government.
Indeed, neighbouring Saudi Arabia last week used its purpose-built causeway connection to the Bahrain island state to send in hundreds of troops in their high-end armoured cars to support King Hamad Al Khalifa against what he calls "an external plot." That plot, of course, is the suspicion -for which there is no evidence -that Iran, the heartland of the Shiite Muslim sect, is aiding and abetting its co-religionists in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia, where the Shiites are a large, oppressed and turbulent minority.
The Iranian regime with its aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons is near the top of Washington and Europe's hate list.
So the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain can pretty much do what they please, with confidence that their value to the Western powers as suppliers of oil and host to key military bases will outweigh any principled revulsion at the way they treat their citizens.
Syria's President Bashar Assad has no similar insurance policy as unrest spreads in and around the southern city of Deraa.
After security forces killed four people last week, demonstrators rampaged through several cities. They have set fire to government buildings including the offices of al-Assad's governing Baath party in the most serious uprising against the regime that has ruled Syria for nearly 50 years.
Al-Assad, a London dentist before inheriting the presidency from his father 11 years ago, has studiously rejected all overtures to align his country with the West and instead has dealt with North Korea on a failed scheme to acquire nuclear weapons and with Iran on manipulating the politics of neighbouring Lebanon.
But al-Assad still has some friends and alliances, which puts him in a slightly better position than Libya's Gadhafi, who has none.
That is what has made Gadhafi such an easy target for the UN resolution permitting "all necessary measures" to prevent him using extreme violence to put down the uprisings against his regime.
In his 42 years in power, Gadhafi's meddlesome ways have alienated almost every leader not only in the Middle East, but also Africa.
Thus, when last week public opinion in the United States and much of Europe demanded that something must be done to support the Libyan rebels, Western leaders were able to get support from the Arab League and the African Union. Without that support the UN resolution could not have been passed and intervention would not have been possible.
Support from Libya's neighbours was also essential in persuading China and Russia not to use their vetoes on the Security Council and instead to simply abstain on the intervention vote.
China usually takes what it says is a principled stand on the non-use of violence to solve international disputes and a philosophical objection to intervention in general.
But Beijing's principles are as malleable as those of everyone else.
Last week Beijing decided those principles were outweighed by the demands of maintaining the friendship of the Arab and African worlds.
Mind you, the Arab League's Secretary-General Amr Moussa is now expressing outrage that the imposition of a no-fly zone is putting Libyan civilians at risk.
But Moussa is likely to run for the presidency of Egypt in six months' time and a smidgen of anti-Americanism always helps a political career in the region.
jmanthorpe@vancouversun.com
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