The Arab Spring into the Arab Summer

Qadafi and his disgraceful regime are finally at an end after four decades of control on the lives of every Libyan. The man who re-invented himself after Lockerbie and who survived the 1986 attempt to kill him using a joint British and US air raid, is finally dislodged. I remember the news stories on the 1986 raids that were conducted by F14, Harrier and Tomcat aircraft from carriers in the Mediterranean that left his daughter dead and which hit many military targets and with civilians killed.

After shaking Blair’s hands in the tent in the desert and being re-introduced into the international community, he used his various investments (which were stolen monies of the people of Libya), to cajole and buy his way into respectability with his son leading the way as the ‘liberal’ face of the regime. The London School of Economics also accepted his ‘donations’ and were fortunately found out. Respectability, it seems clearly came at a price.

The leather faced leader is now on the run with his own people chasing him. How he must be railing against his failed attack on Benghazi which mobilized France and then our country into action. Hubris and the usual dictator’s closeted mindset meant that he misjudged his actions and the global impacts that it would have. He also forgot that a government in a country with oil which makes military moves should know that there will be many other countries looking at opportunities to either ally themselves or look at whether they can oust the incumbent regime and possibly get access to mineral riches. Whilst this was not the over-riding reason for French and UK involvement, it certainly is one of the reasons why both countries now are willing to support Libya with technical, military, political and financial help and assistance. Money talks, though the military action was necessary to oust one of the more brutal dictators in Africa and to save the lives of so many in Benghazi. If the world had not stepped in, many people, their families and their wives and sisters would have suffered humiliating and painful deaths under the torturers of Qadafi.

So farewell to another dictator as the heat of the Arab Spring reaches another part of the Middle East and North Africa region. The spring may have turned to summer but the heat has certainly not cooled down.

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