Good piece from Yves Engler
Amidst the horrific devastation in eastern Libya the Canadian media has largely refused to mention the central role NATO’s war played in the country’s instability.
In a report on the thousands killed by flooding in eastern Libya Global National offered some context to the tragedy that’s thought to have left over 10,000 dead. It noted, “once one of Africa’s most prosperous countries, decades of lawlessness have left Libya fragile.” But the three-minute clip omitted any mention of NATO’s 2011 war in creating that lawlessness. Commanded by Canadian General Charles Bouchard, seven Canadian fighter jets, two naval vessels and special forces participated in NATO’s six-month assault.
A front-page Globe and Mail story on the deadly flooding reported that the country’s “divided authority delayed flood warnings” and “years of wars and military clashes across Libya have left cities vulnerable.” But, the article spread over two full pages in the middle of the paper failed to mention a war in which NATO dropped 20,000 bombs on almost 6,000 targets.
The media hasn’t always been reticent to discuss Canadian intervention into Libya. The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, National Post and Vancouver Sun all published editorials endorsing the 2011 war. After six-months of fighting the federal government organized an $850,000 nationally televised celebration for Canada’s “military heroes,” which included flyovers from a dozen military aircraft. Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the 300 military personnel brought in from four bases: “We are celebrating a great military success.”
At a ceremony held in the Senate, General Bouchard was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General and PM for leading the NATO mission. Bouchard was also made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
The war celebrations were a cross party affair. After Gaddafi was savagely killed interim Liberal leader Bob Rae commended the Canadian military and NDP leader Nycole Turmel released a statement noting, “the future of Libya now belongs to all Libyans. Our troops have done a wonderful job in Libya over the past few months.”
Yup, Canada did a bang up job in Libya.
I’m not using bang up to mean excellent. I'm using it to mean destroyed, damaged, very, very badly
Here’s one I published in 2014 at my old site- That post had 1000’s of reads- This was before the internet became as heavily censored as it has. Including the taking down of my site- Sadly the url to original source are not working. So, what I can access below is as good as it will get!
The Libyan people were one of the least developed in the world when Gaddafi came to power in September, 1969. Under the Senussi monarchy, Libya was one of the poorest countries in the world with an annual income of less than sixty dollars per capita.
Muammar Gaddafi based his system on Arab socialism and utilised the vast petroleum wealth to remarkably improve the people’s standard of living in the Arab world and Africa. Most Libyan families now own a home and a car. The public health service is free, and is one of the best in the Arab world and so is education, compulsory and widely open to women.
Hospitals and pharmacies in Libya are of international standards and any costs incurred at treatment abroad are paid for by the State.
The country has an impressive urban infrastructure that includes well-built road networks, motorways, telecommunication system, water and electricity and other key amenities.Can you imagine this? Ghadaffi and his tribal bretheren rid the country of the despotic king and in less then 50 years, less then 50 years builds a thriving modern state for the people of Libya. And it took just a very short time for NATO sorties to destroy it all.
The Great Man Made River Project-
^*What’s so very interesting about this project was the involvement of SNC Lavalin- In my opinion, Canada, attempted to distance itself from this project by portraying SNC Lavalin in a negative light– SNC Lavalin has recently rebranded to AtkinsRéalis in an attempt to forge a new identity
Muammar Gaddafi initiated a unique Libyan project, the “Great Man Made River”, that brought water from under the Sahara Desert in the south of Libya and made it available to coastal cities in the north. The Libyan dictator believed that wars will be fought over access to water throughout the Arab lands in coming years and its control could become even more decisive than petroleum reserves. Hence came his solution to tap the water reserves in various basins of the desert.
Foundation of this colossal project was laid in 1984 with an estimated cost of $5 billion. Massive machines pump water from aquifers in Sahara desert in the southern part of the country. The ‘Great Manmade River’ consists of more than 1,300 wells, most more than 500 m deep, and supplies 6,500,000 cubic metres of fresh water per day transported by reinforced concrete pipelines to the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte and elsewhere.
The inauguration was carried out by Col. Gaddafi on 28 August, 1991. According to an Executive Intelligence Review article published in September 1991, the Libyan leader underlined the following in his speech: “After this achievement, American threats against Libya will double…The United States will make excuses, [but] the real reason is to stop this achievement, to keep the people of Libya oppressed.” Gaddafi presented the project to the cheering crowd as a gift to the Third World and called on farmers from neighbouring countries to come to Libya for agriculture.
Gaddafi knew this achievement would guarantee the US & company would show their true face to the globe.
Not the Hollywood face of cool men who always get the botox women.
No it would be the other face. The face of death & destruction. A face that the world has seen so often but for some reason never seems to recall the look of ?
My opinion 2014. Haven’t had any reason to change it
Gaddafi : Developing Africa
The Libyan autocrat enabled Africa to experience a veritable technological revolution by financing the first African communication satellite. Gaddafi invested $300 million in this landmark project that enabled the whole of the continent to establish telephone links, transmission of television and radio stations, introduction of telemedicine (remote diagnosis), distance learning and education and many other projects of far reaching implications. Before the satellite’s launch in December 2007, African countries paid a fortune to Europe for using their satellites.
Gaddafi also provided 15% of the budget of the African Union at the InterAfrican institutional level. This really explains the reluctance of African Union to condemn Gaddafi, in contrast to the Arab League, which abhors him.
Gaddafi also extended his generosity to South Africa, Liberia, Madagascar, the countries of the Sahel and central Africa where he financed administrative buildings, hotels, restaurants, NGOs, Islamic organisations, a network of petrol distribution, (via the Libyan National Oil Company), shops, entertainment events – like the Malian Festival of the Desert – and charities.
On the other hand, Gaddafi never shied away from supporting rebel movements active in African countries. He extended his support to the Tuaregs in Mali by offering protection and finance during the repression of their movement by Malian government in the 1990’s.
The claims of mercenaries fighting for Gaddafi is hardly surprising as back in 2005, he granted a residency permit to all the Nigerian Tuaregs, Malians and other sub-Saharan Africans and provided them free housing. In 2006, Gaddafi called the tribes of the Sahara, including the Tuaregs, to form a coalition to oppose terrorism and drug trafficking.
NATO’s reign of terror
Soon after the voting on the UNSC Resolution 1973 on 19th March, NATO jets started bombarding the military positions of the Libyan army and systematically decimated anti-aircraft radars, tanks, heavy artillery and armoured carriers. Libyan navy installations were also attacked by NATO despite the fact that they were charged to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.
The Western leaders, initially calling on Gaddafi to step down in exchange for a safe passage, took a U-turn and tacitly gave approval to his assassination. NATO jets bombed one of the houses of Gaddafi family where he was present with his son, Saif Al-Arab. His son and three grandchildren died in the attack. NATO blatantly denied any war crime was committed by targeting a head of state present in a civilian compound.
NATO aircraft spared nothing they suspected of being used by pro-Gaddafi forces. Pipeline factories, communications towers, electricity pylons, water and sewerage pipelines, roads and other civilian infrastructure came under the fire of the Coalition forces on numerous occasions which is also a violation of international laws.US President Barack Obama signed an executive order that directed the killing of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family.
Oh, Obama the peace president…blah, blah, blah. Canada did this alongside the US, France, Israel and others