Predictable chaos in Libya (West's dangerous interventions)

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 Predictable chaos in Libya (West's dangerous interventions)

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• General Haftar's attack : The Libyan General Khalifa Haftar (Libyan National Army) is approaching capital Tripoli, after taking control of eastern parts including most of the oilfields. This general helped Muammar Qaddafi seize power in 1969, but escaped to US in 1980, returning in 2011 to oust Qaddafi.
• Who is backing Haftar : For their own selfish reasons, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and some West Asian states are helping Haftar. Russia is doing so openly, and France covertly. Haftar claims he is a Salafist, opposing Islamists and Muslim Brothers.
• Which govt. runs Libya? There is the "Govt. of National Accord“ recognised by the UN, but it is an ineffective group of warlords split along ethnic and regional lines. The Tripoli govt. is practically powerless.
• Rule of the gun : Ever since Western forces removed Qaddafi, chaos reigns in Libya. Once this country had high living standards, free health care and education, and many female workers, but now has many migrants running to Europe. Its inland waterway to green the eastern desert was known as the "world's largest irrigation project".
• Violent overthrow : Even as Qaddafi was willing to talk to the West on ceasefire etc., the Western forces (France, UK, US, NATO) attacked. It was a tragedy. But Iraq, Syria and Yemen too have faced the same. The future one – Afghanistan.
• President Obama accepted failure : He had said that US had no plan to prepare for what lay ahead after Qaddafi would be overthrown. Perhaps the West assumed that democracy will come alive, instead of a military rule!
• Post Cold-War phenomenon : The UN remained the custodian of state sovereignty worldwide, not allowing interventions by others. The 1965 and 1981 resolutions -- "declarations on the inadmissibility of intervention in domestic affairs of states" -- were adopted. But that was violated by Western-controlled intervention in the cover of UN approval (the Iraqi-Libyan species).
• Reasons and catalysts : The post 9/11 fear of terror, the spread of Islamic State, the desire to "impant" liberal democratic institutions and human rights all came together. What happens is "exogenous state building" and "a peripheral role for local leaders".
• Problems with the approach : Attempting nation-building in societies divided by ethnic, factional, ideological and religious lines is beyond any group of UN members, let alone the US alone. All interventions needed US support anyway.
• Who made it possible : All these interventions happened as rights-based agenda was pushed by activists in political mainstream, and mass media made the suffering widely publicised. The West began considering many third-world nations - illiberal, war-torn or weak - as threats to global security.
• Mis-representation : So, what was a political project was wrongly projected as an altruistically motivated enterprise, similar to post-1945 occupation of Japan or Germany.
• Failed state-building in neo-protectorates : (a) New elites were as bad as earlier rulers, (b) Absence of law enforcement catalysed new mafia, (c) Focus by occupying forces was on holding elections and exiting  the place, and checking power of institutions, and not  building them, and (d) There was no cultural link between the West and these nations.
• Stop the pretence : The West should stop pretending that it can impose democracy from the outside. In doing so, it will save the third world from a lot of violence and mayhem.
• Summary : The violent crisis in Libya is a reminder of the utter failure of the Western interventions that try to implant democracy in third-world nations, without understanding the basic dynamics of these places.

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