by MAHMOOD MAMDANI
Libyan assets are mainly in the US and Europe, and they amount to hundreds of billions of dollars: the US Treasury froze $30bn of liquid assets, and US banks $18bn. What is to happen to interest on these assets?
In the absence of any specific arrangement assets are turned into a booty, an interest-free loan, in this instance, to US Treasury and US banks. Like the military intervention, there is nothing international about implementing the sanctions regime. From its point of view, the international process is no more than a legitimating exercise.
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Of these, only the radical Islamists, especially those linked organisationally to Al Qaeda, have battle experience. They – like NATO – have the most to gain in the short term from a process that is more military than political. This is why the most likely outcome of a military resolution in Libya will be an Afghanistan-type civil war.
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The African Union delegation sent to Libya to begin discussions with Gaddafi in pursuit of a political resolution to the conflict was denied permission to fly over Libya – and thus land in Tripoli – by the NATO powers.
The New York Times reported that Libyan tanks on the road to Benghazi were bombed from the air Iraq war-style, when they were retreating and not when they were advancing.
The two pilots of the US fighter jet F15-E that crashed near Benghazi were rescued by US forces on the ground, now admitted to be CIA operatives in a clear violation of Resolution 1973 and that points to an early introduction of ground forces.
The logic of a political resolution was made clear by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, in a different context: ‘We have made clear that security alone cannot resolve the challenges facing Bahrain. Violence is not the answer, a political process is.’
That Clinton has been deaf to this logic when it comes to Libya is testimony that so far, the pursuit of interest has defied learning the political lessons of past wars, most importantly Afghanistan.
Marx once wrote that important events in history occur, as it were, twice – the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. He should have added, that for its victims, farce is a tragedy compounded.
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