THE drive by General Khalifa Haftat to overthrow the remnants of the Libyan government, and take on and defeat the Al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood Islamists, is a bid to impose a military dictatorship on Libya for the benefit of US imperialism.
Haftat took part in the 1968 Libyan revolution that overthrew the Libyan monarchy and feudal rule, and established Libya as a modern state whose oil wealth was used to benefit the Libyan people.
For a period, he was the head of the Libyan armed forces, before he broke with Gadaffi and moved to the USA for more than 20 years.
He returned to Libya in 2011 to play a part in the NATO-sponsored uprising that murdered Gadaffi and handed over the country to Al-Qaeda Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The ‘Revolutionary Brigades’ financed and armed by US and UK imperialism then concentrated on carving up advanced Libya into a number of feudal fiefdoms, each with its own oil, pipelines and exporting port.
The nationalised oil industry, that under Gadaffi was developed to transform the country, in their hands became the private property and a source of fabulous wealth for religious and tribal leaders.
The contending regional, tribal and religious groups then began a fight to the finish with each other, with Libya’s oil as the prize, while the standard of living of the Libyan people, including education and healthcare, plunged downwards towards zero.
Well-meaning people lamented the ‘mistake’ that the UK and the US had made in handing the country over to tribalists, and feudal religious fanatics, and the immeasurable harm that this was doing to the Libyan people.
However, the destruction of Libya was not a mistake, and followed in the footsteps of the conscious destruction by the US-UK axis, of another oil-based advanced Arab country, Iraq.
These victories for democracy, as they were hailed, paved the way for the attempted destruction of yet another advanced Arab nationalist country, Syria.
The fact is that the USA, the UK and the other imperialist powers had, and still have, a very soft spot for the Arab reactionary feudal regimes, because they do not get in the way of the looting of the oil wealth of the Middle East and North Africa, or the expansionist plans of the USA or Israel.
The Arab nationalists were and are against imperialism and against the exploitation of their countries by imperialism to try and keep them backward. The feudalists loved the imperialist powers, and, along with the mullahs, even allowed them to plunder the ancient treasures of Iraq, Syria and Persia, labelling them the work of pagans.
Just look at how close George Bush was and President Obama is to the Saudi feudal dynasty. Just look how close the UK monarchy is to the Bahraini royal family who consider even the semblance of democracy to be treason.
The imperialists brought down Saddam and Gadaffi without the slightest concern or worry about what would replace them. They argued that nothing could be worse than the nationalists as far as their oil ambitions were concerned.
Their only interest was oil. They were unconcerned about the new rulers, just in getting rid of the old. Now they are setting out on part two of their Libyan operation.
This is to kill off intransigent Islamist groups and bring to power leaders that will emulate the Egyptian military and the Gulf feudalists, and put the interests of imperialism first.
No doubt the Egyptian army is poised on the border to lend a hand to put an end to the remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda.
General Haftata has emerged already formed, with substantial armoured and helicopter-backed forces, and a military cadre trained in the UK, and eager to do the dirty work for US and UK imperialism.
The mass of the Libyan people will be under no illusion about the coup that is taking place in Libya’s major cities. It is not for their benefit!
What they require is an uprising that overthrows all of the agents of imperialism and restores all of the national territory and resources to the working class and the youth.
What they require is a socialist revolution!
