Libya-NATO alliance worrisome

For those readers who have, as an unfortunate result of their curiosity and the Internet, seen the pictures and videos showcasing the gruesome, final moments of Moammar Gaddafi's life, I hope we can agree that they rate highly on the scale of revulsion. Nonetheless, the show of the Colonel dragged out of a graffitied concrete drainpipe, shot in the head and legs, beaten and then paraded on the hood of a truck strikes a very different chord from the executions of his fellow terrorists-cum-dictators of recent years—Saddam Hussein's hanging was frozen in time by the shoddy work of a camera phone by a spectator and Osama bin Laden was tossed to sea after a private viewing by certain government officials. What is it about this particular monster that merits a multi-angle documentation and a public showing at a Sirte meat locker? This distinctly "hands-on" approach to the capture and defeat of Colonel Gaddafi, alongside the extent of great-power intervention and aid in the Libyan uprising, complicates the question of the readiness of Libya to launch forward into this essential transitory period.

The first urgent issue to address is the potency of western intervention in the Libyan case and the space opened for an error, akin to the Iraqi mistake. My trouble in understanding the American rejoicing over Gaddafi's death is centered on the mystery of American-Gaddafi ties in the past. Known transactions of weapons sold to Gaddafi are vestiges of a past that the Obama administration has failed to address thus far. Similarly, the question of natural resources remains central to skepticism towards the role of the NATO alliance, which, despite its superficial commitment to a peacekeeping function, is a symbolic representation of a great-power investment in the revolution itself, and consequently, a voice in its transformation. There is a repertoire of frenzied media accounts of NATO involvement, such as the French terming of the revolution as "Sarkozy's war," to name one. Now, the death of Gaddafi vis-à-vis NATO warplanes further increases the debt of gratitude, as the power holders of a symbolic end to a struggle. Surely, western companies will play an integral role in the post-war reconstruction effort, and billion-dollar contracts in oil exploration and construction will solidify the long-term presence of NATO powers in the region. Libyans must step away from the symbolic death of Gaddafi and remain wary of their precarious place in the post-war state of great-power intervention. The debt of gratitude operates in creating a surface relationship of trust and seeming honesty, with Obama's recent statement that NATO forces must depart, that this moment is Libya's, that the war is over. With the largest oil reserves in Africa, Western intervention is a double-edged sword. Its physical departure from on ground does not signal a simultaneous exit from the culture of gratitude that it has created and that will most definitely shape its presence in the region in the transitional years to come.

My view is that in light of speculative but highly possible great-power interest in Libyan resources and the culture of a debt of gratitude that results from intervention and aid, a burial of Gaddafi must occur. My stance is not to simply push aside NATO intervention as completely fickle, selfish and unnecessary—its efficacy exists, as does the fact that the alliance entered as per request of the NTC. I do not wish to bemoan the demise of a crushing and brutal dictator. Instead, I only hope that Libya proceeds with caution. It must remain constantly aware of great powers that, previously nonplussed about Gaddafi's 42-year rule, will most definitely act in some degree of self-interest. It has been a proven trend in the Western relationship to the Middle East, sustaining economic alliances with authoritarian rulers in order to open up access to resources. A burial of Gaddafi would serve to demystify the direct role of NATO in a symbolic victory that is visually reinforced worldwide—the "murder" must be taken into the hands of the people that caused this revolution instead of being shuffled amongst great powers that will only reinforce this image to cement their purposeful debt of gratitude. Instead, Libyans must try to march forth with a dignity that belongs to them, above and beyond air power and investment that is only fetishized by a sort of morbid curiosity with the image of a dictator felled by benevolent Western peacemakers.

—Noor Mir '12 is a political science major.