SARKOZY and Cameron visited Tripoli yesterday, not to celebrate any illusory ‘victory’, but to shore up the NTC counter-revolutionaries, who are already fighting amongst themselves, with their NATO and ex-Al Qaeda wings organising to kill each other off.
Their joint message was a grim one for the counter-revolutionaries.
Cameron said it all when he told them urging unity: ‘This is not finished, not done, and there are difficulties ahead.’
The principal difficulty is that the NTC controls only a fraction of the vast country and even with NATO support has been unable to take Sirte and Gadaffi’s strongholds in the centre and the south of Libya.
As a pressman pointed out, the government has not even shifted itself from Benghazi to Tripoli, out of fear of the pro-Gadaffi forces in the city and also the pro-Al Qaeda factions that are said to be in control of the city and to be deeply hostile to the NTC leaders.
Yesterday, the NTC actually requested more military resources and more military equipment.
Cameron duly pledged that the NATO mission would continue ‘until civilians were safe’, presumably meaning until NATO has killed the entire civilian population of Sirte and Bani Walid with its mass bombing campaign.
Cameron let the cat out of the bag when he pledged: ‘we will help to find Gadaffi and bring him to justice’, meaning that he is considering Britain expanding the war by sending British troops to patrol Libya’s southern borders and to search for and destroy Libyan military and tribal forces among whom Colonel Gadaffi is organising.
Cameron also volunteered that efforts would be made through the UN Security Council to unfreeze Libyan funds, and in that case the British government would be able to help in freeing up to £12 billion in Libyan assets.
This will require that both China and Russia do not veto the resolution dealing with the issue on the Security Council.
Both have betrayed the Libyan people by recognising the NTC as the government of the country, but both are miffed that they have been shut out of the oil deals that have been agreed so far.
To get the support of the Russian and Chinese Stalinists, Cameron and Sarkozy may well have to agree that they receive a share of the oil loot. The Stalinists however are willing to be bought at the right price!
Sarkozy was forced to speak about the deal that was made with the NTC last April, when in return for eternal support from France the NTC agreed that France would have 37 per cent of Libya’s oil production.
This shocked and angered the Arab world and proved to millions that this was indeed a war of oil thieves seeking to plunder Libya.
Yesterday Sarkozy, in the most comic fashion, sought to deny that France had any ambitions concerning Libya’s gas and oil wealth.
He insisted: ‘There is no agreement, there is no behind the scenes agreement about resources in Libya.’ He added: ‘We are for no preference’, and ‘have not thought about any political gains’, saying that even if France did not win a single contract, its enthusiasm for ‘democracy’ in Libya would remain.
He however confirmed that NATO strikes will continue ‘as long as “free Libya’’ is in danger’, and revealed one of the ambitions of French imperialism, stating that his hope was ‘Syria will have the same chance as the Libyans’ and that ‘Syria will one day be free’.
It is forward to the next war!
The TUC Congress on Wednesday called for an immediate military withdrawal from Libya. On the contrary, Cameron is planning to continue and deepen the war.
The TUC must begin a national campaign to demand the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Libya, to end this imperialist war, and call for the victory of the Libyan people and Colonel Gadaffi.
