An Alternative to Western Intervention in Libya

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

At last, what we did not wish for has happened: international military intervention in Libya. International intervention has made us taste bitter suffering across decades, indeed centuries, and the harvest was never a good one — it was always corrupt and rotten, inflicting on us defeat, frustration, and humiliation upon defeat, frustration, and humiliation. Weakness struck us, and so we called on foreigners for help; greed struck the foreigners, and so they did not hesitate to leap upon our necks. The League of Effeminate Arabs expressed this very weakness when it opened the doors to Western intervention, and the West was hardly far removed from steering that League toward its decision to invite the nations to intervene.

As for Gaddafi, he was never a man of true manhood, and chose to meet his own people with killing and destruction rather than content himself with forty-one years of repressive, grasping, barbaric rule. Gaddafi left no vice uncommitted, no arrogance unpracticed against his own people and others, no depravity he did not himself embody. He plunged Libya into a dark cave, and found nothing but iron and fire to keep its mouth sealed shut. He did everything possible to drive Libyan Arabs to cry out for rescue, even from the devil himself.

As an Arab, I feel a sharp pain watching the planes of France, America, and Britain — the very nation of enemies — bombing Libyan territory. They violate Arab skies, destroy equipment that ought to be the property of the Libyan Arab people, and kill soldiers who ought to be builders of the nation. Shame on Gaddafi, and shame on the Arab League with him. Gaddafi, together with the League of Effeminate Arabs, insisted on humiliating the nation after the very victories achieved in Tunisia and Libya, victories on the verge of being achieved in other Arab countries too. And the West insisted on humiliating the Arabs when it named its military operation “Odyssey Dawn” [lit. “Dawn of Carthage”], determined to conjure history and remind us of their past victories over the people of the Arab Maghreb.

There was an alternative to calling on the West for help, and the alternative was easy and readily available — had the will for it existed, just as the will to submit to the demands of the Western states existed. It is clear that the Libyan army is not a professional army, that its military equipment is old, worn out, and mostly out of service, and that it would be tactically easy to confront it, thwart its military actions, and break its offensives. All the rebelling Libyan masses needed were anti-armor and anti-aircraft weapons, some information on the military movements of Gaddafi’s army, and a few trainers in the use of these weapons. Gaddafi’s fighters were not at a professional military level, and on some fronts advanced only with old equipment easily repelled by modern countermeasures.

Many Arab states possess shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, such as SA-7 and Stinger missiles, which could easily have been purchased and supplied had there been genuine intent to support the Libyans’ revolution against their tyrant. Several Arab states also possess anti-armor missiles capable of destroying American-, French-, and Soviet-made tanks from long distances before the tank can strike its own target. Several Arab countries have experts who do nothing but enjoy wearing their military uniforms, and it would have been possible to send them to Benghazi to train the rebels in using these weapons. Their use requires no great professionalism, since Gaddafi’s army is itself unprofessional. So what, then, stopped the Arabs from helping the people of Libya with some fighters — men and women alike — and pilots, instead of turning toward the West? What stopped them, of course, is that they possess no control over their own affairs, and decide nothing for themselves.

The Arab League could have called on Hezbollah or Hamas, or both together, to stand beside the Libyan people, and it could have eased the way for the two resistance movements to provide swift and powerful support to the Libyan rebels, particularly since the airports of eastern Libya are available and in good condition, capable of receiving civilian and military aircraft alike. The Arab regimes could have improved their image somewhat had they insisted on an Arab solution, or a purely Arab action free of foreign intervention.

And it is a disgrace that Mr. Amr Moussa protests the Western military operations exceeding the scope of the Arab League’s recommendation. He wants it to be a lesser sin.

No blame falls on the people of Libya, who face raging fire, indiscriminate killing, and Gaddafi’s savagery — but the shame lies with those who weep over Libyan blood while wanting the aggressors of the earth to be the ones to rescue the purity of our Libyan Arab people. Every day, the Arab regimes confirm anew that the Arab peoples have endured them far longer than they should have, and that their eras must come to an end.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “بديل التدخل الغربي في ليبيا” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.