Newspeak

No serious person has beleived, from Day One, that what Imperialism has been engaged in, for the last six months, in Libya, was a "No Fly Zone" to prevent civilian casualties. Right from the start what we have had has been a War by Imperialism declared on Libya.

It has undertaken 20,000 bombing runs, using the latest high-tech weapons, and Cruise Missiles.

A look at the TV pictures shows the utter devastation that has been unleashed upon the country. But, it has been widely reported that, from early on, Imperialism has been using depleted uranium munitions, which are an effective means of armour piercing.

But, the consequence of such munitions is that the depleted Uranium is highly toxic. On impact, it becomes a powder that forms an aerosol, which disperses through the air, and also settles into the ground, entering the water table. As a consequence, its poisonous effects, including terrible deformations of babies, persist for decades. Britain alone has spent more than £300 million on the War.

But, it was also clear that this had nothing to do with protecting civilians. The Benghazi based Transitional Nation Council was largely the creation of France's President Sarkozy, who has been the main proponent of the War against Libya.

Its establishment, and the rebellion that erupted in Benghazi, enabled Sarkozy and Imperialism to present them as an alternative legitimate Government. Sarkozy recognised the TNC as the legitimate Government virtually immediately. The UN resolution 1973, was passed on the basis of preventing a massacre of citizens in Benghazi, by the use of Gaddafi's airforce. In fact, it quickly became clear that in Benghazi not only was there a large amount of military equipment, and regular troops, but there were even rebel aircraft. That became clear when one of those aircraft was shot down by mistake, not by the Imperialist "No Fly Zone" being policed, but just by the incompetence of the rebel fighters! In fact, as Channel 4 News have reported, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said that they could find no evidence to support the claims that were used to justify the War.

In fact, as nearly all foreign TV News Channels have reported, and some British news coverage has also made the point, the No Fly Zone was no such thing, it was an air war against Libya, with rebel forces based initially in Benghazi, providing a Fifth Column on the ground, whose job was to move in and take territory after massive bombing had cleared the way for them.

This was facilitated not just by the fact that Gaddafi's regime was hated by many Libyans, but by the fact of Libya's history. The country was originally three separate countries, which, like many Arab and African countries, that were former colonies, had been artificially brought together by the Colonial power. As a single country Libya is a very recent construct, and as many commentators, who are specialists in its history and politics, have been making clear over the last few months, it is not just the divisions between those three countries that exist. There are differences according to tribe, and locality as well. As one reporter related the other day, one rebel commander he spoke to said that he had to ensure that his men were made up in a specific way even to move to the next town, otherwise they would not be accepted.

Benghazi had previously acted as the Capital of the second most important country, and prior to the 1969 coup that brought Gaddafi to power, it was the base of the King. It has been the centre for several previous rebellions.

The East has also been the main base for the activities of the jihadists of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, whose members appear to be the most organised, and most significant in respect of the Eastern based rebel fighters, though not of those from the West, who are mostly Berbers and others, who have their own interests to pursue in toppling Gaddafi.

In fact, the Western rebels appear to be the ones who have received least support from Imperialism, and yet it was they that had most success. It was the Western rebels, who eventually entered Tripoli. Right up to that moment the Eastern rebels continued to make little headway, despite having massive Imperialist airpower clearing the way for them, and despite having been provided with the latest weapons, and training by Imperialism, and despite, it has now been shown, having the benefit of Special Forces troops from Britain, France, Jordan and Qatar fighting alongside them.

In Tripoli itself, the promised uprising of its people never happened, even at the moment that the outisde rebel forces entered the city, following an intensified night of bombing by Imperialism.

The Gaddafi regime had provided many of the people with arms to defend themselves, and in the main that didn't happen either. In pockets of the city, residents, and Gaddafi loyalists, together with some regular troops have continued fighting, but the majority of ordinary citizens appear to have either left the city - most clearly illustrated by the fact that the entire staff of one hospital fled as the rebels approached that part of the City - or else are just keeping their heads down. Some news reports have spoken about mass celebrations within the City, similar to what was being said about the arrival of Imperialism into Baghdad, but again, even the pictures that go along with those news reports, tell a different story. At most what we have seen is a few hundred rebels letting off steam, with guns and fireworks.

Some foreign news channels yesterday were reporting the discovery of war crimes by the rebels, and of massacres of civilians, particular of black Libyans, who have been willy-nilly assumed to be mercenaries. In fact, as many of those foreign news channels have reported, most of those Black Libyans, were indeed Libyan citizens. Many are people who genuinely supported Gaddafi, because they had benefitted from the regime, others were just black Libyan workers. Some foreign news reports from France 24, for example, talked about seeing dead bodies of such black Libyans, where they had had their hands tied behind their backs, so that it was obvious they had been executed by the rebels. Yet, the BBC coverage spoke only of massacres, and executions, the implication being that these were atrocities only committed by Gaddafi's regime.

As I quoted Channel 4's, Alex Thompson rcently, its war, and politicians lie, but we should expect something better from the BBC. The most ludicrous piece of propaganda was a comment yesterday from the BBC's Clive Myrie.

He was outside Sirte, where British Jets had just dropped another load of bombs on the Libyan people. They were he told us "maintaining the No Fly Zone"!!! What exactly were the preventing from flying at this stage, Gaddafi's armed kites and paper aeroplanes????