A week ago, the Iraqi military attacked and killed civilians in its border – a group of Iranians who have been active in opposing the regime in Iran and providing the US government with intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program.
Forces in England are talking about recalling Parliament to discuss whether the Prime Minister went beyond the mandate he was given to assist in a no-fly zone. Holland is now officially in the “no-fly zone is not regime change” camp. The US/UK/France statement that the war in Libya will go on until Qadaffi is gone is breaking apart the coalition. Canada is now having second thoughts about their involvement.
I read an obscure blog this morning by a person from Chicago whose politics couldn’t be more different, but I completely agree with his conclusion – the reason for the war in Libya is related to Libya’s refusal to participate in the Western banking system and not running up external debt that would allow the Goldmsn Sachs of the world to run the country.
Just to make sure I understand your last sentence, I’ll reformat the sentence as: “… the reason for the war in Libya is: (1) related to Libya’s refusal to participate in the Western banking system; and (2) [Libya] not running up external debt, that would allow the Goldman Sachs of the world to run the country [of Libya]. I assume (1) relates to Libya just exchanging assets with the rest of the world (primarily oil assets going out, primarily dollars/gold assets coming in). I’m assumina all incoming assets were retained within Libya, except for those going out which were exchanged when purchasing various imports. I assume (2) means that Libya, by not borrowing from the rest of the world, gives the rest of the world no financial leverage over Libya.
Disregarding other aspects of the Libyan situation, it would seem that their financial policies are inherently sound. They have rejected the tempation to pay for ongoing expenses with borrowed money.
I think that is called being financially independent.
Your parsing is correct.
I haven’t done an exhaustive study, but just the projects I found are – Qadaffi has spend $25 billion to build a 40″ diameter pipeline to carry water from the southern Sahara aquifer to provide fresh water to the coastal cities, over 90% of the country has reliable electric power, Bhenghazi was just about to put a new 450 Mw gas fired electric plant online, there is an extensive network of desalinization plants, paved roads connecting the major cities…. All of that is being paid for in cash. Being an Islamic country, charging or paying interest is strictly forbidden. Investing in things is not. So the bulk of Libya’s government assets are in the Libyan Sovereign fund
One of the priorities on the Man Made River project was to develop the domestic ability to produce steel, and migrate the manufacturing of the pipes from foreign workers to Libyans.
The biggest problem Qadaffi has is the result of his socialism. With the oil money and providing for the people’s needs, the young people are lazy and indolent. Of the 8 million population of Libya, 2 million were foreign nationals doing the work of keeping the place running.
It’s also significant that almost all of his armaments are Soviet vintage (pre 1990). He (or more likely his son(s)) did not go out and start buying lots of airplanes and modern tanks. There aren’t really that many external enemies who they felt were a threat any more.
Something I read earlier today points out that Libya and Ivory Coast both refused to join AFRICOM, that U.S. led military alliance in Africa created to prevent wars in Africa.