WILLIAM.REED -Guest Columnist-
Saying that “It’s time for Gadhafi to go,” President Barack Obama joined a coalition of colonialist countries to invade Africa. Ignoring protests from leaders of the African Union, Obama partnered with NATO’s league of neo-colonialists to “get Gadhafi.”
In taking this action, Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich said Obama has committed “an impeachable offense.” Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan also said Obama should have a meeting with Gadhafi and that “you can’t order him to step down and get out, who the hell you think you are?”
Indeed, Obama failed to notice the African Union’s caution that “Libya’s territorial integrity should be respected” and that “outsiders have armed Libya’s rebels to get access to the country’s oil.” Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe called Libya “an African issue that should get its solutions from Africans and not from Europe and America” Mugabe was joined by South African President Jacob Zuma in saying that “the arming of the rebels in Libya by the Americans and other foreign western powers is a direct attack on African sovereignty and a clear demonstration of foreign interference.”
›Black Americans are as foolish as Obama if they try to perceive what is happening in Libya within a Eurocentric perspective. Libya’s system and the battle now taking place are outside of Westerners’ imaginations.
Libya’s young people are well-dressed, fed and educated. Libyans earn more per capita than the British. Libya’s wealth has been fairly spread throughout society. Every Libyan gets free (and often excellent) education, medical, and health services. New colleges and hospitals in Libya are impressive by any international standard. All Libyans have a home and a car, and most have televisions, video recorders and telephones.
Clearly then, Black Americans would do well not to drink from the same cup of Kool Aid as Obama. We should be aware that the West’s mainstream media is enjoined in telling the same old story: that Gadhafi “is crazy” and “a brutal dictator”; that “this is not about oil”; and that “we will be in and out quickly.” We must recognize that the corporate media has played a superb role in demonizing Gadhafi and getting the world’s outright acceptance of the imperialists’ intervention in an internal and civil matter.
In fact, Gadhafi has long been a target for aggression from the West since the 1980s. News coverage by Western media is oversimplified, misleading and stacked toward getting rid of Gadhafi. An array of anti-Gadhafi spokespersons, most living outside Libya, has been paraded in front of us. The media and their selected commentators have done their best to manufacture an opinion that Gadhafi is just another tyrant amassing large sums of money in Swiss bank accounts.
In contrast to Western depictions, Libya utilized revenue from its oil to develop the country and its people. Instead of letting people know that Libya has one of the world’s highest standards of living, Western media and Obama will lead you to believe “we need to go save them.”
So, before they endorse this move by Obama “to save the world” through military might, Blacks should ask themselves: “Which country has the bloodiest history of genocide, slavery, invasions, coups, installing and backing brutal regimes, bombings, massacres and mass destruction, including the use of nuclear weapons? Which government imprisons its own people, in particular its minorities, at the highest rate in the world? Do we want to continue these practices?”
Hopefully, after asking these questions, we as people will come to our collective senses – and pressure America’s first Black president to stop proving himself “one of the boys” when it comes to participating in, and being a part of, imperialists’ interventions.
(William Reed is a writer based in Washington, D.C., and his column was distributed by the NNPA Newswire.)
Related news:
How to get out of Libya? (Khaleej Times, 4-07-2011)
Africa, the CIA and war against Libya (Zimbabwe Herald, 04-04-2011)
Audio: Farrakhan Questioned on Libya & More (WPFW/Pacifica, 04-01-2011)
A CIA commander for the Libyan rebel (WSWS.org, 03-28-2011)
Video: States of independence: The Scramble for Africa (AJE, 09-02-2010)
Obama then Hillary: U.S. scrambles for Africa (FCN, 08-31-2009)
Re-packaged AFRICOM still not good for Motherland (FCN, 07-01-2009)
Is Africa throwing off the yoke of dependency? (FCN, 06-30-2009)
Is Africom a U.S. military maneuver or real help? (FCN, 02-05-2009)
The global exploitation of Africa’s land and people (FCN, 08-21-2008)
Africa rebukes Bush on African Command (FCN, 07-11-2007)
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