Lessons For US From The Death Of Its Ambassador In Libya – OpEd

By Shenali Waduge

The deaths of US ambassador to Libya and several others has many lessons though none of which is likely to perturb or change how US strategy has evolved to make America the world’s self-declared super bully. The marked difference in US and China is clearly that whilst China’s strategy has been to tap the local leaders of the nations that has geopolitical interest, the US and West have been adopting a very third grade approach by picking groups of frustrated youth, training them as rebels, arming them and then guiding them to destabilize nations through armed insurrections so that they could install puppet regimes that would allow them to plunder the natural resources of these nations. Through development and aid China has made tremendous inroads into Africa and Asia whilst US and West are invading nations, turning these nations upside down, completely ruining the lives of the civilians and pretending to be preaching democracy while Americans end up financing trillions for these horrific actions!

US ambassador to Libya Mr. J. Christopher Stevens and 3 others died following a rebel attack at the US compound in Libya’s capital. These armed men probably were those that the US and West helped arm to oust Libyan leader Muhammar Gaddafi. The killings were to protest against a US film mocking Prophet Muhammad. Protestors had also attacked the US consulate in Egypt as well.

Sad as the deaths are these incidents certainly does raise more than a few eyebrows. 9/11 occurred at a time when George Bush’s popularity was at an all time low and was likely to affect his election campaign. 9/11 caused deaths of over 3000 Americans and with the tons of unanswered questions of 9/11 being a self-attack to trigger a “war on terror” and “military intervention” of countries using R2P, one can but wonder whether the Benghazi attack has followed the same blueprint. If so, we can well predict the next US President!

Lets get something straight. All the “rebels” in Libya and now in Syria are men who had been openly armed and financially supported by the US and the West and had their rebel campaigns facilitated by NATO airstrikes. These men have no familial ties, they have no religion, they have no morals, they simply do not belong to civil society and are only brainwashed to kill. They are no different to the men who give them the arms, the instructions and targets to kill. Therefore, the excuse of storming an embassy compound on the excuse that it offended Prophet Muhammad is nothing we should take seriously. As for offences to Islam there have been many incidents – there have been cartoons, the US troops in Afghanistan have been photographed urinating on the Koran, there have been incidents of burning the Koran – how could any of these be any more distasteful than Muslim women being ill treated, children being married off and used as sexual objects in the name of religion, wives beaten or honor killings?

However, it is the outcome of the deaths that is what matters. The US can now harp on lack of security, law and order – all the jargon that equates to mean nothing other than the need to continue foreign presence until “democracy” prevails in Libya. The West has not given democracy to Iraq or Afghanistan in over a decade and the situation in these countries is far worse than before the arrival of the West. The US now plans to increase security measures which means that US will be sending thousands of security contractors like Blackwater to create nothing short of what they are doing in Iraq with impunity. There are over 180,000 private security personnel in Iraq who are all above all laws and they account to much of the civilian deaths taking place. Is it not ironic that all of the countries that the US invaded or instilled puppet regimes are all advocating fundamentalism and championing Shariah laws! Is this a US strategy to have Muslim nations ruin themselves whilst their private concerns take over the natural resources!

Mr. Stevens joins a list of many other ambassadors who had died in the line of duty, in the countries that US had been either pursing regime change, covert operations and many other destabilizing campaigns simply to allow a handful of US private enterprises to enlarge their global profits. Ambassadors John Gordon Mein was shot by rebels in Guatemala in 1968, Cleo Noel Jnr was shot dead in Sudan in 1973, Rodger Davies was killed by sniper fire in 1974 Cyprus, Francis Meloy was kidnapped and shot by Palestinian militants in Beirut in 1976 and Adolph Dubs was killed in Afghanistan in 1979. Many of these deaths are shrouded in conspiracies just as Pakistans Zia ul Haq’s death on a plane which also killed the US ambassador to Pakistan as well as the US military attaché was said to be a CIA job.

In all, 238 US foreign service personnel have died to date during off-shore posting in 232 years since 1780. This number is nothing compared to the millions of civilians that have died as direct and indirect result of US actions on foreign soil starting with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and US present actions in Syria.

The trend of turning groups of men into armed militants and making them “terrorists” has provided interim advantages to the US/West to carry out a trend towards neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism. The profits from these interim periods of terror for private corporations and political advantage has added little difference to the eventual knowledge that these terrorist groups are unlikely to remain loyal to their masters which has resulted in the present state of anarchy today. This ugly practice to make use of terror and terrorists is unlikely to change so long as countries continue to make profits from the sale of arms and ammunition.

Just as Mr. Stevens died in vain as did 3000 innocent Americans – the game of power and profits is never concerned about life or peace.

The views expressed are the author’s own.