FROM the early 1980s, the CIA and MI6, directed by the US and UK governments of the day, supported and armed the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden and his supporters, in order to overthrow the pro-Russian government of Najibollah.
They brought the Taleban to power and then fell out with it, bin Laden and his supporters, since the imperialists wanted complete domination.
The result of this policy so far – including the attack on the Twin Towers, the Bush/Blair assault on Iraq, and the current Afghan war – are millions of corpses, and countries that have had their infrastructures completely destroyed.
The 1969 Libyan revolution saw the monarchy overthrown and a right-wing Islamist community granted exile in the UK, where it was used by the UK government to mount attacks on Libya, includding assassination attempts on Colonel Gadaffi.
London became known as Londonistan, because of the numbers of Islamists who were based here, living off state subsidies.
These Islamists, however, found an alternative cause after the removal of the Saddam Hussein regime.
Libyans made up the biggest group of Al Qaeda suicide bombers, second only to Saudi Arabians, who sought to kill as many Shi’ites as possible in order to establish an Iraqi emirate.
In the aftermath of the Iraqi slaughter, in 2004, the imperialist powers decided that a change of policy was necessary to deal with Libya and Gadaffi.
From deadly foe, Gadaffi overnight became a key ally and dear friend, after Blair made his trip to the Libyan desert, embraced the Colonel and welcomed him back as a friend ‘to the community of nations’. In return, Libya gave up its wmds, handed out a number of fat oil contracts, and gave its full support to the ‘war against terror’ – meaning that Libya took action against Islamists who threatened the US and UK ruling class.
The agreement that was signed pledged strategic long-term economic, military and security cooperation. It saw M16 and the CIA working as closely as possible with the Libyan government, which claimed that Blair was one of its closest advisers.
The Islamists who were hunted down are the same Islamists who are now making up Hague’s and Cameron’s foot soldiers in the current oil war!
British imperialism used its agreement to soften up and take in tow elements of the Gadaffi regime, and at a decisive moment of the world capitalist crisis, with North Africa in revolt, manufactured the Libyan revolution, complete with NATO revolutinaries, led by Al Qaeda veterans and some of their former ‘persecutors’.
This alliance of convenience backed by air power has seen the imperialists get as far as Tripoli.
The plan now seems to be to try to win over a bigger section of the Gadaffi military leadership and use them, backed by imperialist ground forces, to slaughter the Islamists, so as to be able to establish a dependable imperialist puppet regime.
Blair duped Gadaffi, an innocent abroad in terms of the bottomless pit of treachery that is British imperialism, where solemn agreements count for nothing, and where the great prize was always the recolonisation of Libya to grab its oil.
However, the Libyan people have not been defeated and are fighting on, despite the mountain of propaganda lies that is being used to attempt to smother them.
The truth remains that if the imperialists put the handcuffs back on the Libyan people, and rob their oil, they will return home with a redoubled determination to smash the Welfare State and turn the UK into a hell for workers.
The News Line urges the British workers to support the Libyan people, and to be for the victory of Gadaffi. UK workers must make their contribution to the struggle. This must be a general strike to bring down the coalition and bring in a workers government.
