Editorial

Scent of Jasmine, whiff of cordite

March 22, 2011   ·   211566 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2Fscent-of-jasmine-whiff-of-cordite-21156Scent+of+Jasmine%2C+whiff+of+cordite+2011-03-22+07%3A21%3A07Qalinle+Husseinhttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2F%3Fp%3D21156

Somalilandpress Editorial

To seasoned observers of international affairs the events taking place in the Maghreb and throughout the Middle East remind us that essentially diplomacy is a game of gilded immorality. What began in Tunisia as one young man’s act of desperation and self-immolation has now become a conflagration that has seen the Western powers heaping on as many combustibles as they can lay their hands on. The Libyan debacle is fast beginning to resemble a Shakespearean tragedy, one in which the protagonists seem intent on a bloody struggle, peppered with intrigue, a war of words and base motives. The villains in this sorry drama out-Shakespeare Shakespeare when it comes to their foolishness, vainglory and duplicity. I wonder if Muammar Gaddafi at this time is giving any thought to what he did to King Idris? Those who live by the sword die by the sword.

From the outset key Western powers, who for so long have profited from propping up North African despots and Arab potentates, have seemed at a loss how to proceed. Ever mindful of self interest they were slow to condemn regimes that sought to snuff out the candle of freedom lest they jeopardise lucrative investments. Nicolas Sarkozy’s France, the arch-meddler in African affairs was a late convert to liberté for its former North African colonies and it seems particularly ironic that Alain Juppé (France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs) has invested so much energy in endeavouring to galvanise the International Community into action against the Libyan leader. The moral indignation from Juppé has been all the more surprising as France has spent so much time bolstering tyrannical regimes from Burma to the Sudan. Whilst peoples have struggled in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia the UN has been a place of posturing and procrastination – a case of a Vapid Reaction Force that has made the League of Nations look decisive. How strange then that France and Britain felt able to recognize a new rebel government in Benghazi within a matter of days when the likes of Somaliland have waited patiently all this time, anyone would think that Libya had oil or something.

The once all-powerful US has appeared utterly perplexed by events, wedded as it has been to regional allies such as Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt (a favourite destination for the US to out-source torture) and the misogynistic tyranny that is the House of Saud. President Obama has been a near voice off stage, whilst his Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, ever mindful of the US 5th Fleet’s base in the Persian Gulf, has worn a grave expression and opted to side with the despots that have turned their ire on those calling for basic freedoms in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

 

No Shakespearean tragedy would be complete without an element of farce and this has been provided by William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, and his announcing that Gaddafi was en route to Venezuela and his sanctioning a bungled Special Forces ‘visit’ to Libya – something which if anything stiffened the resolve of Gaddafi loyalists. To this motley crew one can add the turncoats and ne’re do wells of the Arab League and African Union, leaders who speak words of brotherhood whilst sharpening the knife and routinely betraying their own people. As the bombs rain down across the region the scent of jasmine is replaced by the whiff of cordite China and Russia appear for now as mere bit-players, each with pained expressions knowing how ruthlessly they themselves have persecuted the Muslim Uigers and Chechens. All this at least will stimulate their sales of arms – for defensive purposes of course.

Gaddafi and his sharp suited sons will exhort the young to die for them as they denounce “the Coalition of the Devil”. The West – a veritable coalition of the inept will choose to ignore the suffering in Manama, the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen and elsewhere and its leaders will instead talk of democracy and peace whilst waging war. For to adapt some words from Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth … it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing but self interest.

By Mark T Jones

London based freelance writer and international advisor on African Affairs.

Somalilandpress | 22 March 2011

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Tags: Arabia, editorial, Jasmine revolution, Libya, Military, Somalilandpress Mark T Jones, West