Where are the Arabs in the confrontation between Moammar Qaddafi and his people? They have disappeared, as if the matter does not concern them. France and Britain seem more concerned with the tragedy of the Libyan people at the hands of Qaddafi and his sons than the Arab states that could act, if they wished. I would not ask the Arab states to intervene in Libya if they were facing the situation like that of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, because in Iraq they could not have settled things quickly, and perhaps they would have launched a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites, with certain foreign intervention. In Libya, military intervention is easier, with safer results. I would have asked for the Egyptian armed forces to intervene, through air strikes on mercenaries among Qaddafi's forces. These forces would certainly be able to do this, as they have not fought in 38 years and have received huge military assistance from the United States every year; also, Egypt has modern fighter planes and bombers. Today, I am asking for each Arab country that is able to intervene to save the Libyan people, and I specifically call for a role for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arab Force also has modern warplanes that can carry out the kind of limited missions that I am speaking of, especially if there is cooperation and coordination between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Qaddafi regime is a paper tiger. Its brutality is aimed at its defenseless people. We have seen Qaddafi's forces, which he spent hundreds of billions of dollars on arming, defeated in Chad by local fighters in jeeps left over from World War II, and French “shawish”s. The Libyan defeat was the second for the white man in the history of modern Africa, after the Italians were defeated in Ethiopia before the war. The decision to establish a no-fly zone by the United Nations Security Council is ineffective. I will not give the reader my private thoughts. I do not have any strategic military experience, but am citing what Arab experts and research centers are saying. There is a near-consensus that the no-fly zone will not stop Qaddafi's forces because the battle is on the ground. Air strikes are needed to stop these forces from marching east. If Qaddafi's forces and palaces in Tripoli are targeted by parallel strikes, he will surrender, because he is a coward. He restricted his crimes to foreign civilian planes or the people of his country. Do we need to repeat what Qaddafi has done against the people of Libya or the international community? He reminds us of what he has done. He and his son Saif al-Islam have threatened a bloodbath and 100,000 people killed; Qaddafi then threatened foreign operations, or terror, and piracy on the Mediterranean Sea. Piracy is what led the American Navy to attack the shores of Tripoli in the 19th century (the anthem of the US Marines says “to the shores of Tripoli”). Qaddafi wants to take us and his country back to the 19th century, or the dark ages that preceded it. Once again, Arab military intervention should be very limited. It is not a land invasion or long-term occupation, or even a short-term one. Instead, it should consist of air strikes that overturn the military equation on the ground and raise the morale of the Libyan resistance, as much as it should do damage to the morale of Qaddafi and his mercenaries. I argue that Arab military action will raise the morale of the entire Arab nation, in every Arab country, and boost their self-respect. While intervention is needed for its reasons having to do with Libya and the Arab world, it is also necessary to head off any western attack on Qaddafi's forces. We saw the consequences of the invasion of Iraq and we have yet to exit this predicament. If they attack Libya, it will be for the same, “Iraqi” reasons, meaning oil, while the Arab stance against Qadadfi's regime is aimed at saving the Libyan people, and not stealing the country's oil. There is a Libyan opposition capable of managing the country's affairs after Qaddafi. It can quickly get Libyans out of the cycle of violence, ignorance, backwardness and tribal division, because Libya has an income level sufficient to meet the needs of its people. Our duty is to all support the Libyan National Council and its head, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, and the support should be tangible and real. It is not enough to support the Libyan people with empty talk and stale, traditional speeches. After 42 years of dictatorial rule and oppressive terror that borders on madness, Libyans deserve to be given the chance of a dignified life, and their Arab brethren should play a fundamentally-important role in leading them to the shores of safety. [email protected]
