{"id":102961,"date":"2017-12-04T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=102961"},"modified":"2017-12-03T12:17:55","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T12:17:55","slug":"slave-markets-in-liberated-libya-and-the-silence-of-the-humanitarian-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/12\/slave-markets-in-liberated-libya-and-the-silence-of-the-humanitarian-hawks\/","title":{"rendered":"Slave Markets in \u2018Liberated\u2019 Libya and the Silence of the Humanitarian Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE PHOTO. \u00a9 Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

1 Dec 2017 – <\/em>The reports that black Africans are being sold at slave markets in \u2018liberated\u2019 Libya for as little as $400 is a terrible indictment of the so-called \u2018humanitarian intervention\u2019 carried out by NATO to topple the government of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.<\/p>\n

In March 2011 virtue-signaling Western \u2018liberal\u2019 hipsters teamed up with hardcore neocon warmongers to demand action to \u2018save\u2019 the Libyan people from the \u2018despotic\u2019 leader who had ruled the country since the late 1960s. \u201cSomething has to be done!<\/em>\u201d they cried in unison.<\/p>\n

Something was done. Libya was transformed by NATO from the country with the highest Human Development Index in the whole of Africa in 2009<\/a>\u00a0into a lawless hell-hole, with rival governments, warlords and terror groups fighting for control of the country.<\/p>\n

Under Gaddafi, Libyans enjoyed free health care and education. Literacy rates went up from around 25 percent to almost 90 percent. A UN Human Rights Council report on Libya from January 2011, in which member states praised welfare provision, can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was clear that while there were still areas of concern the country was continuing to make progress on a number of fronts.<\/p>\n

In the Daily Telegraph – hardly a paper which could be accused of being an ideological supporter of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya – Libya was hailed<\/a> as one of the top six exotic cruise ship destinations in June 2010.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ian56789\/status\/775977806425690112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fop-edge%2F411562-libya-slave-markets-nato%2F<\/p>\n

Cruise ships don\u2019t have Libya on their itineraries today. It\u2019s far too dangerous.<\/p>\n

The only surprising thing about the return of slave markets (and it\u2019s worth pointing out that before the CNN report<\/a>, the UN agency, IOM also reported<\/a> on their existence in Libya earlier this year) is that anyone should be surprised by it. Human rights and social progress usually go back hundreds of years whenever a NATO \u2018humanitarian\u2019 intervention takes place. And that\u2019s not accidental. The \u2018interventions,\u2019 which purposely involve heavy bombing of the country\u2019s infrastructure and the subsequent dismantling of the state apparatus are designed to reverse decades of social progress. The \u2018failure to plan\u2019 is actually the most important part of the plan, as my fellow OpEdger Dan Glazebrook details in his book<\/a> Divide and Destroy – The West\u2019s Imperial Strategy in an Age of Crisis.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/RT_com\/status\/884013014051155969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fop-edge%2F411562-libya-slave-markets-nato%2F<\/p>\n

Libya was targeted, like Yugoslavia and Iraq before it, not because of genuine concerns that \u2018another Srebrenica\u2019 was about to take place, (note the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee report<\/a> of September 2016 held that \u2018the proposition that Muammar Gaddafi would have ordered the massacre of civilians in Benghazi was not supported by the available evidence\u2019) but because it was a resource-rich country with an independently-minded government which operated a predominantly state-owned socialistic economy in a strategically important part of the world.<\/p>\n

Neither Libya, Iraq or Yugoslavia did the bidding of the West’s endless war lobby, which is why they were earmarked for destruction. The chaos which routinely follows a NATO regime change op is a ghastly experience for the locals, who see their living standards plummet and their risk of violent death in a terrorist attack greatly increase, but great for rapacious Western corporations who then move in to the \u2018liberated\u2019 country en masse, taking advantage of the lack of a strong central authority.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/GabyVerdier\/status\/578172156896546816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fop-edge%2F411562-libya-slave-markets-nato%2F<\/p>\n

Of course, this is never mentioned in NATO-friendly media. The role of the Western elites in turning previously functioning welfare states into failed states is missing from most mainstream reports on the countries post \u2018liberation.’<\/p>\n

In his recent piece<\/a> for FAIR, journalist Ben Norton noted how reports<\/p>\n

\u201coverwhelmingly spoke of slavery in Libya as an apolitical and timeless human rights issue, not as a political problem rooted in very recent history.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The dominant narrative is that slave markets have re-emerged in Libya \u2018as if by magic,\u2019just like Mr. Benn\u2019s shopkeeper. The country\u2019s \u2019instability\u2019 is mentioned, but not the cause of that instability, namely the violent overthrow of the country\u2019s government in 2011 and the Western backing of extremist, and in some cases blatantly racist, death squads. Everyone is blamed for the mess except the powerful, protected people and lobbyists who are ultimately responsible.<\/p>\n

The French government played a leading role in the destruction of Libya in 2011, yet today the French president, the \u2018progressive\u2019 Emmanuel Macron blames<\/a> \u2018Africans\u2019 for the country\u2019s slavery problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are the traffickers? Ask yourselves \u2013 being the African youth \u2013 that question. You are unbelievable. Who are the traffickers? They are Africans, my friends. They are Africans.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Macron, like other Western leaders, wants us to see the slavery issue in close-up, and not in long-shot. Because if we do, NATO comes into the picture.<\/p>\n

There is similar whitewashing over Iraq and the rise of ISIS. Again, we are supposed to regard the group\u2019s emergence as \u201cjust one of those things<\/em>.\u201d But ISIS was not a force when the secular Baathist Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq; it only grew following his ousting and the chaos which followed the occupiers\u2019 dismantling of the entire state apparatus.<\/p>\n

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The result of intervening in Libya has been "disappointing at the very least", says Observer leader, arguing against action in Syria. Balls.<\/p>\n

— David Aaronovitch (@DAaronovitch) June 2, 2012<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n