Bombing Libya into Capitalist Opportunities

If you are sitting at home thinking that NATO is fighting for human rights in Libya you need to check your assumptions.

Even as I write this there is an intense scramble by the West and its capitalists to 'rebuild' Libya.  The US is seeking to release $1.5 billion of frozen Libyan capital to get the ball rolling (of course under the guise of "humanitarian aid").

As of this writing, the South African government is blocking the release saying it is too early to release this money.

Mmmm ... a little too late on the matter of principle is my thinking.  South Africa had no business declaring war on Libya in the first place.

Naomi Klein wrote an influential book called The Shock Doctrine in which she documents the madness of disaster capitalism and the manner that the US, in particular, uses natural and man-made disasters for capitalist profit (its own).

The West is in decline and it needs to sell and save its economies.  Nowhere is this truth more apparent than in the US.

War is a capitalist tool in these terms.  Libya is the world's 12th largest oil producer and it offers infinite opportunities for Western interests to capitalize by spinning its post-bombing development agenda.

And what of all the noise about freeing the 'oppressed' and democratizing in Libya?

You should know by now.

See The Independent's "Dash for profit in post-war Libya carve-up" (August 24) for an early discussion of the rush to re-build what has just been bombed into development opportunities for the US, Britain, Canada, France, and even Germany who abstained from voting on Resolution 1973.

And we are not free.

Onward!

Update (August 26): True to its usual sell-out form the South African government has caved under pressure from the US and Britain and given its consent to release the $1.5 to the National Transitional Council (NTC).

To try and save a little face the ANC-led government insists that the release is not a "formal" recognition of the NTC.

Whatever.

As if Zuma and company really can stop the drift to installing a constructed government in Tripoli.  Already members of the TNC are being recognized as ambassadors in the West.

And we voted these idiots into office in the name of freedom.  South Africa is fast becoming (become) just another stooge of the West.

Onward!