Iraq and Afghanistan - Libya and Egypt

Immediately the "peace keeping" troops left Iran, sectarian war broke out. Clearly this was totally unexpected by our western politicians, but to anyone who is familiar with the history of the area, it was entirely predictable. There has never ever been peace in the Arab world except where there was a strong man in control, and for all that has been said about Saddam, far more Iraqi lives appear to have been lost since he was deposed than during his tyrannical rule. Indeed the only peaceful area of Iraq is that inhabited by the Kurds, who would like to form their own independent country, but have been prevented from doing so by the West, largely at the behest of Turkey.

So moving on to Afghanistan, is there anyone who doesn't believe that exactly the same will happen there the day after the troops pull out? Why do we continue to allow our soldiers to be killed for a clearly unrealisable goal? Surely there can't be any of our politicians who are stupid enough to believe that Afghanistan will settle down to be a peaceful country with democratic rule?

I see exactly the same problem in Egypt and Libya The so called Arab Spring in Egypt is turning to a winter of discontent, and no doubt Libya is following not far behind.

The fact is that democracy in all these countries is still stuck in the 12th century in British terms, but unfortunately they have 21st century weapons at their disposal.

Libya - Islamic Law

Late night thought:

The Telegraph reports that:

"Libya's interim leader outlined more radical plans to introduce Islamic law than expected as he declared the official liberation of the country."

"More radical than expected" - than expected by whom?
Certainly not unexpected by me,, nor by most bloggers that I read!

Libya - Why?

I remain undecided as to the merits of our actions in Libya and totally unconvinced by the official reasons.
I understand the moral and humanitarian arguments. They are logical and perfectly acceptable, and I feel that no one could reasonably disagree with the need to stop fighting, whether it is two factions within a country, or a bully beating up someone in the school playground.
What I do find strange is this sudden outbreak of morals in our government and parts of the EU.

There has been plenty of other similar incidents of suppression and killing in African countries over the past few years, and these governments have merely sat on their hands and done nothing.
Zimbabwe, or  Rhodesia as I prefer to call it, has been terrorised by Mugabe and many thousands have been killed with even greater numbers dying of starvation and disease. The life expectancy there is now at an all time low. This for a country which, at the time of independence was the "bread basket" of Africa with one of the highest living standards on the continent.
Then there was Rwanda, a former Belgian colony, Angola and Congo, both former Portuguese colonies,  Algeria and the Ivory Coast, both former French colonies all of which have had civil wars with huge death tolls, not only from the war, but also as in Rhodesia, from the subsequent starvation.
None of these stirred the morals of any of the individual ex-colonial powers, the EU or the UN. So why should Libya.
Now there are good reasons for the EU to intervene in Libya apart from oil, the main one being the likelihood of huge numbers of refugees. Italy and Malta are already experiencing a huge influx of refugees from Tunisia, a small country compared with Libya, and were this to be repeated by similar numbers from Libya the EU could be inundated.

So, on balance, I support the action being taken at present, albeit with numerous reservations.
What I do hope is that part of the eventual resolution of the situation will involve the splitting if Libya up into the two original countries from which it was formed after the war, Cirenaica and Tripolitania which were based on the original tribal territories.

Libya - Weapons of Mass Destruction

Whilst I am probably as appalled as anyone by the turn of events in Libya, and feel that there is a need for the civilized nations to take some action, I am somewhat concerned by the Daily Telegraph's reports of Weapons of Mass destruction, in this case Mustard Gas, which "are still a concern" according to a senior British Government Source.

Haven't we heard this before?

Evacuation from Libya

I've just been watching William Hague on TV being interviewed about the evacuation of British Citizens from Libya and I was very far from impressed.
France, Russia, Ireland and a number of other countries have got their citizens out, but so far no British Citizen has got out other than by his own endeavours.
One plane stuck at Gatwick, others awaiting permission and worries about civilian crews. What's happened to the RAF? It still has trooping planes at Brize Norton. And even if they aren't available and civilian crews are unwilling to fly, I'm sure the government has the powers to requisition suitable aircraft and could find crews, RAF or otherwise.
Waiting permission? Well why haven't the aircraft  already been positioned in, say, Malta ready to go in at a moments notice? And as for permission, the French and Russians didn't bother and a couple of fighter aircraft would dissuade the Libyan air force from doing anything silly.  
Lots of the British are in remote desert camps. Where are our helicopters? Whoops, sorry, I forgot, the MoD still have them on order. Even so, I would have though many of these remote camps have some kind of airstrip, if only for light aircraft, but anything is better than nothing. What about desert convoys and dropping our paras as an escort. Isn't that why we have paras so we can put troops into such places. Somehow, if the government stopped worrying about what the Libyans think, it should be possible to organise evauation to Egypt.

The reason that I believe this country should have a strong military is so that we can, in the limit, defend our country, but  more importantly so that we can assist and protect British citizens abroad should the occasion arise, something the military, and particularly the Royal Navy with the Marines, used to do extremely well.

We have now shown how incompetent we are (other dictators please note) and have let down our citizens, not only in Libya, but elsewhere in the world where trouble could erupt. We have maybe thousands of ex-pats and holiday makers in the gulf states, I wonder if Hague and the Foreign Office incompetents have even considered what to do if the trouble spreads to these from Bahrain.

Libya

It is interesting to watch what Obama is doing with regards to Libya.
As reported in the "Gates of Vienna", America, under Obama, is
"doing what it does best: “expressing concern”, “calling for restraint on both sides”, “urging the Libyan government not to react with violence”, etc. If none of these stern measures has the desired effect, then it will “continue to monitor the situation closely”.
AGI News reports:
"(AGI) Washington - Barack Obama is evaluating "appropriate action" vis-a-vis Libya. The announcement was made by a US Administration source that asked the regime of Muammar al-Gaddafi to not resort to the use of force against anti-Government protesters. "We will ask the Libyan Government for clarifications. We will continue to raise the need to avoid resorting to violence against peaceful protesters and call for the respect of universal human rights", the source explained. . .
All this inaction gives credence to those who claim that Obama is a Muslim at heart, and there is some logic in their arguments.
Firstly there is no doubt his father was a Muslim, and Islam regards children of Muslims to also be Muslims (Indeed this is a similar position to that adopted by the Roman Catholic Church until comparatively recently)
However, unlike the Catholic Church, it is a basic part of Islamic doctrine is that once a Muslim, always a Muslim, and you cannot opt out. Anyone who does, according to their beliefs should be killed.
Now there are many extremist Islamic clerics who are calling for al sorts of violent actions against the west and against various individuals in the west. Strangely I cannot recall any of them calling for Obama's death, notwithstanding the fact that he is the leader of the country that is their main enemy, and that in their eyes he has deserted Islam.

But then, perhaps he hasn't

I do love a good conspiracy theory!