NATO's Failure in Libya: Lessons for Africa

Muammar Gaddafi and the Elusive Revolution

23 Horace Campbell Muammar Gaddafi and the Elusive Revolution Gaddafi came to power as the leader of Libya after a coup d’état removed King Idris on September 2, 1969. This bloodless coup was orchestrated by the Union of Free Unionist Officers under the leadership of its Chairman, then Captain Muammar Gaddafi. King Idris’ rule was replaced by that of a ‘Revolutionary Council’, but Gaddafi emerged from the ranks of the free officers and quickly asserted his authority over the following years to become the new head of state.54 In the 42 years that Gaddafi was in power, the politics of the society went through many twists and turns but remained relatively stable. After studying the Libyan experiment, Ruth First, the South African revolutionary historian, termed it ‘the elusive revolution’.55 This term is now most useful in grasping the zigs and zags of the Gaddafi regime over four decades, which can be said to have gone through four periods: 1969-1977: Period of the Revolutionary Command Council, or the period of elusive revolution 1977-1988: Period of confrontation with the Western states, including the 1986 bombing of Libya by Ronald Reagan 1988-2001: Period of sanctions and isolation, and Gaddafi’s move to embrace African diplomatic interventions 2001-2011: Re-opening to the West and the end of Gaddafi. During the first period, 1969-1977, society was governed by the Revolutionary Command Council. Radical initiatives occurred in this period, such as the nationalisation of oil companies and banks, and the expulsion of the US from Wheelus military base. The Libyan leadership attempted to emulate the Pan Africanism and Pan Arabism of Gamel Abdel Nasser, but within one year, in September 1970, Nasser passed away and the Libyans had no model to anchor their experiment in radical nationalism. Nonetheless, the elementary claims at recovering national wealth were seen as threatening by the imperial forces, and by 1977 the US Department of Defense listed Libya as a potential enemy of the US.56 There was no doubt that Libya was no longer simply an outpost for Western 24 Africa Institute of South Africa NATO’s failure in Libya: Lessons for Africa companies. However, the contradictory postures, alliances and partnerships that were proposed left Libya isolated because of the personalised nature of diplomacy under Gaddafi. As one author summed up this period, Pushing his policies of anti-Zionism, anticommunism, and anti-imperialism, Qadhafi became something of a champion of reawakened Arab pride, an exemplar to many young Arabs of commitment to Arab Unity and of sincere and dedicated endorsement of the Palestinian cause. … Such widespread admiration was nevertheless relatively short-lived. It was not long before Qadhafi had begun to antagonize other Arabs with his disregard for diplomatic convention and his inflexible insistence on the absolute righteousness of his own policies and philosophies.57 After proposing a series of schemes to unite with Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria, the Gaddafi regime became isolated. This was especially the case with the Palestinians, in whose internal matters Gaddafi attempted to dictate. UN sanctions and the ‘conversion’ of the regime While representing himself as a revolutionary, Gaddafi exposed his lack of understanding of international politics and his own ideological limitations by his alliance with Idi Amin of Uganda and providing military and financial support to Amin when Uganda attacked Tanzania. Throughout the first twenty years of the Gaddafi regime, the Libyan government was embroiled in the internal politics of Chad, supporting differing factions and deepening the involvement of the Libyan forces in prolonged military scraps in the Aouzou dispute. The extended Libyan involvement in the military wrangles that have been journalistically termed the ‘Toyota War’ diverted the attention of the African freedom struggle and gave legitimacy to the French military intervention in Central Africa.58 Gaddafi’s infatuation with self-styled ‘rebel’ leaders and organisations brought a steady traffic of individuals such as Charles Taylor making pilgrimages to Libya. (What Gaddafi did not know was that, during his relationship with Charles Taylor, the latter was working as a US intelligence asset.)59 Through the organisation Al Mathaba, the Libyan leadership proclaimed itself to be at the forefront of anti-imperialism, but the Green Book – the theoretical basis for this revolutionary posture – was as contradictory as the policies of Gaddafi. 25 Muammar Gaddafi and the Elusive Revolution Horace Campbell On March 2, 1977, with the Declaration of the Establishment of the People’s...