Fall of the despots
By Dr Firoz Osman
(source: Citizen Newspaper, thurs 24/02/2011, pg12)
The massive and indiscriminate violence meted out to the unarmed peaceful protesters by the brutal, tyrannical Libyan regime, and the behaviour of rulers in Bahrain, in Yemen and Algeria, has shocked the world. Reports that hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands wounded by mortars, missiles, helicopter fire and aerial bombings is simply outrageous.
The pathetic attempt by Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif to justify these attacks by raising the spectre of the “danger” of Islam in a bid to gain Western support will be in vain, just as the West failed to protect Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.
Mubarak was the lynchpin in American foreign policy for the Middle East, designed primarily to dominate and exploit the oil-rich region and to protect Israel. If they were unable to save Mubarak, they are unlikely to save Gaddafi’s neck.
The use of a ruthless mercenary force to massacre his own people reflects his fear of being ousted in a coup d’etat. He has shrewdly played the tribal card in pitting one against the other to maintain the regime’s survival.
Other besieged Arab regimes in Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco and even Saudi Arabia are desperately resisting popular revolts. Many of them will stubbornly cling onto power using brute force and repulse the call for freedom, justice, and dignity.
