By: Naveed Dar
United States of America intervenes and intervenes at will, though it is not free. Not free because of the considerations and concerns of the people, ask Afghans and Iraqis, who lay as sitting ducks under its fighter planes and military boots, but the human content of the ‘humanistic’ intervention is limited to the extent of objectives and interests it can extract overtly and its installed stooges covertly.
That is the reason why United States of America did not support Arab revolutions, except for press releases from State department, in Egypt and other Arab countries, because American interests were best secured that way-status quo; by the protected and supported dictators, by this promoter and enforcer of ‘democracy’. It has not fully endorsed the revolution in Syria, though itching for regime change for its own agenda, and never will, not at least in near future because it has not yet fully found puppets enough for them to run the show for them after the regime change as the Syrians are running the theatre of operations by themselves, depriving America of the control and command America seeks before its ‘humanistic’ intervention, never mind that the unarmed humans are the biggest casualty of such intervention forced down the throat of nations where American definition finds citizens human enough for intervention. Yemen is yet another example of selective ‘humanistic’ intervention of America.
It is in the same context of overt and covert pursuance of agendas that Pakistan and Turkey, both being allies of America, but Pakistan is unstable and its nuclear arsenal is not ‘safe’ and Turkey is stable. The reason being simple enough for American policy makers-Pakistan, only Muslim nuclear nation and who never completely obliged to American interests in the region, must be unstable or else equation can turn pretty nasty for America in Afghanistan, while Turkey, a nation where secularism has been so enshrined into its nationhood that even the government lead by Islamists cannot shrug it off as of yet and its proximity with European Union, is the best bet in a region of fickle ‘friends’-obligers of servitude.
Libya however stands apart from all the above nations, as a case study of American ‘humanistic’ intervention. America came, intervened and never left, in fact it never does, not from a single inch it puts its jackboot on. American interests are too long-term that a country be left on its own in decades let alone years. If it were not for American trillion dollar political and economic interests, America pursues them with such coherence that you can hardly distinguish them, America would not have run even one single million dollar sortie of its ‘humanistic’ intervention not even in its backyard, let alone a millions miles away, particularly given the mess its economy is in.
Libya had a dictator which was not American installed and never came under the servitude of American hegemony and who had a long history of pursuing counter-American agendas and thus against the West also, well implied. As soon as America got a sniff and all obliging stooges to follow what and how it ordered, America intervened for ‘new found’ humans of Libya and of course rest of the world watched and applauded this ‘humanistic’ intervention, where more civilians were killed by air-strikes of American backed NATO then in the fighting between warring factions of Civil war. This was overt part and how on earth it would not be followed by covert theatre of operations, after all CIA also got a PR department of its own. Rest assured those in power would be America ‘frientamely’- friendly and tamed, it would pursue its interests unhindered- a secure base, and remember not for years at least decades.
But ground scenario in Libya was different from one imagined by America in post intervention ‘peaceful’ era. There were certain variables in the Libyan equation America could not control and America could not find ‘peace’. Not all in Libyan civil war were driven by pursuits of regime change only and hence not aligned to American interests; they were the Islamists of Libya, labeled with one common brush of militias, and hence their convergence to the Pan Islamic cause running across all Muslim world in general and Arab world in particular. Besides, Libya is inhabited by different tribes with allegiances running all across, even now we found pro-Gaddafi tribes in Libya, particularly around Gaddafi’s hometown Sirte. This was not what America had thought of, particularly with the Islamists, believing that they would be eliminated and persecuted and by the ‘chosen ones’ in Libya in the same manner as the dictators of Arab countries had done for it for decades. But Islamists in Libya prevailed, in strength and influence too. Many Islamists groups in Libya resisted growing American influence in their country and at the same time sticking to their Islamist agenda. The example of which was the destruction of some shrines, housing hundreds of graves, in Libya by the Islamists which had a tacit approval from Interior Ministry. But America could not effort it as it knew as long as such elements remain in Libya it could never pursue its objectives unhindered and the scene for the next ‘humanistic’ intervention could not be created as of yet.
No to overt, always yes to covert.
So the post anti-Islam movie scenario and killing of American ambassador, who somehow was not to be found in capital Tripoli, but in Benghazi that too with inadequate security at the time of such hostile conditions for whatsoever was American, effectively ensured that public opinion be turned against Islamists and state manage platform for liberals who stood for nothing before that, now are up against the Islamists, dubbed militias, for their ‘killed American friend’. Now we see parallel rallies being held in Libya, while the rest of the whole Muslim world is protesting against the blasphemous movie, protesting against the militias, to disband and disarm them, which will effectively ensure Islamists are purged in Libya and ‘friends of America’ remain only as opinion makers and moulders- a soft Muslim world, the eternal dream of America and West. So when next America ‘intervenes’ or any blasphemy is publicized, America can breathe a bit more easily as it’s ‘friends’ are there. That is why, long before apology from America could be heard by Muslims, American special forces had landed on their land, in Libya. And America has somehow and somewhat achieved what it sought, with police and ‘friends of America’ running over many bases of militia and disarming them, and it won’t stop till all dangers are eliminated.
This was a particular case study of Libya, but analysis can be drawn across Muslim world to understand and act.
Besides, I fail to resolve one mystery should Muslim world be proud of itself that America finds its population within human definition for intervention or struck with perpetual grief that they cannot come upto the standards of American humanity that they should be given similar chance of peace and dignity, particularly in issues that concern them, that American in particular and West in general, offers to its own populace?
Duniya ko hai phir markai roo ho badan paesh
Tehzeeb ne phir apne darindho ko ubara
Allah ko pa marde moomin pe barosa
Iblees ko Europe ki mishoona ka sahara … Allama Iqbal r.a