By Husayn Al-Kurdi

People who do not learn from the lessons of past human tragedies are bound to witness their repetition and ultimately learn those lessons the hard way. Mesmerized by the media monopoly mouthpieces, bamboozled by politician and policy-wonk doubletalk and led astray by their own conditioned foolishness, some people in Libya, Arabs and others are now being herded into support for the destruction of a popular and unique socialist society in Libya.

Using time-dishonored techniques of mass manipulation pioneered by the promulgators of “Public Relations” and commercial advertising, the USA-Zionist imperialist conglomerate is going all out to enlist or at least neutralize and confound onlookers as they drive to oust Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and dismantle socialism and the progress of the Arab people of Libya.

The intruders and their mercenaries, along with their gullible supporters in Libya, are spreading the same type of lies that were used against Saddam Hussein and Iraq before their invasion and occupation of that country in 2003. Jeff Archer detailed the concatenation of lies which were played by the media orchestra in his groundbreaking book “The Mother of All Battles”. The same pattern of outrageous fantasies, personal slanders, inflated exaggerations, concocted lies and ridicule has been deployed to demonize Qaddafi that were used against Saddam, and with the same objective.

In the Libyan case, it is even easier for the international malefactors to get away with their prevarications because so very little is generally known about Libya. Also, the dumbing down of the world population in terms of true knowledge has gone hand-in-hand with the reliance on the cyberspace, media and telecommunications facilities which are owned and operated by the very complex which promotes war and conquest. On the ground, the revival of obscurantist religious trends has helped infantilize all and sundry and facilitate the advances of the crusading capitalist conquerors. Many who ostensibly should know better are swept up in the roundup of support for the imminent invasion of Libya, including leftists, progressives and even many Arab nationalists, in spite of the fact that the Arab nation is a primary target for division, decimation, enslavement and destruction.

Black resister Steven Biko remarked at his trial by the South African authorities shortly before his murder in jail that “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” We see Libyans, Arabs and others around the world proving this by their adoption of the false-flag notions of “freedom” and “democracy” being pushed by the money-driven hucksters of imperialism. The people are subsequently fooled into turning against each other and against their own best interests. Often they realize the tragic consequences of their mistake, but only after it is too late. Then they pine for the lost days and failed opportunities, as many Iraqis are doing for the days when Saddam and the Ba’ath were in charge there.

It is no coincidence that Iraq and Libya were both embarked on socialist experiments in which their oil resources were used to feed, house, clothe, educate and otherwise care for their people. It is not just access to oil but to the proceeds accruing from oil and the manner in which they are invested and distributed which determines the fate of oil-producing countries in the calculations of the multinational corporation/ financial capitalist complex. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is being targeted due to his admirable stand on behalf of his people and his efforts to build a people-friendly socialist society there. Chavez, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and a few others see what is on the horizon for Libya and have spoken out accordingly. They in turn are castigated and vilified by the “PR” mills.

Muammar Qaddafi led a group of junior officers in overthrowing a corrupt, decadent US-puppet monarchy on September 1st, 1969. At the time, over half of Libya’s sparse population of 4 million covering an area 2 ½ times the size of Texas and including much of the Sahara Desert lived in hovels, shacks and make-shift lean-to housing. Illiteracy, poverty and almost total lack of health-care or education was the lot of virtually the entire population. Since then, the situation has been reversed. All are housed and education is now free for all through the university level, a situation which compares favorably to the indebtedness forced on U.S. college students by the American Banking/Government extortion ring. Social services and medical attention were made available to the Libyans and the prosperity derived from petroleum and gas became a source of happiness and contentment for a people which had been forced to endure abject misery.

Qaddafi also assisted a wide range of liberation movements, especially on the African continent but also in Ireland, Latin America and elsewhere. This inevitably aroused the ire of the USA-led imperialists, who imposed sanctions on Libya, launched military raids and attempted coups to impose their will. Some of the elements involved in the counter-revolution in Libya have been among those developed and prepared by the U.S. military-intelligence complex for over four decades. Others have been egged on by reactionary “fundamentalist” religious forces operating under the banner of Islam. Some of the Benghazi mob which initiated recent hostilities there by violently attacking government buildings were and are spouting “Al-Qaeda”-type phraseology while others belong to the Muslim Brotherhood, long a harbinger of ignorance and obscurantism under cover of religious piety. The imperialists and Zionists have a long history of turning to the MB as a counter-force against Arab nationalism and indigenous socialist movements, most notably in Egypt and Palestine as well as currently in Libya.

Imperialism is clearly preparing for an armed intervention in order to “stabilize” the situation. Fidel Castro has sagaciously noted that an invasion is in the offing. Wonk tanks on the Potomac such as the Council on Foreign Relations are openly discussing it. Obama and Hillary Clinton are espousing it in plain terms. There is an increasing awareness of the Muslim Brotherhood’s role in the “stabilizing” process. Their help in Indonesia has been duly noted and Egypt is being discussed as the next testing-ground for their cooperation in that country. The MB and its step-child Hamas were used by Israel for decades to take the sting out of the old PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), helping to ultimately grind it down into a collaborationist shell of its former self. Ostensibly oppositional and even revolutionary movements have a long history of being co-opted into restoring the status quo, with the Provisional IRA (Irish Republican Army) and the ANC (African National Congress in South Africa) serving as prototypical examples in recent times.

In the age of Facebook, Google and Twitter, the media manipulators are able to conjure up popular movements, often focusing on the removal of individual leaders who have disobeyed orders and served the needs of their people or otherwise worn out their welcome. The application of economic blockades (“sanctions”) have facilitated the process of misdirecting people’s anger into fixating on individuals or groups whom the imperialists find troublesome or inefficient. Marcos of the Philippines, Mobutu in the Congo and Egypt’s Mubarak had to go because they could no longer do their jobs as repressive, self-indulgent collaborators and had to be replaced by more suitable personnel. Fidel Castro’s Cuba has had to withstand over 50 years of hell as the heavy price for its remarkable achievements in building a socialist society.

The USA, the pathetic rubber-stamp UN Security Council and NATO are preparing to teach an uppity Arab people the usual lesson. The Arabs have been dealt many heavy blows on the road to their ultimate resuscitation. They will have to endure many more. Now it is Libya’s turn to take a hit. Meanwhile, the usual nit-picking and temporizing is going on in what is called the “progressive community” in America. All sorts of excuses are bandied about for not doing the right thing and supporting Qaddafi in Libya’s moment of peril. Many Arabs are “waiting to see what happens” and assuming a posture of studied neutrality. Some insist on always supporting any “popular uprising” against any government at any time, regardless of the circumstances. Even some who defended Saddam and Iraq are now clambering on the anti-Qaddafi invasion bandwagon. Alleged mistakes and shortcomings are being highlighted while the stupendous achievements of the revolution in Libya are ignored. “Qaddafi-baiting” is the order of the day as arm-chair sectarian leftists pronounce anathema on yet another Arab revolutionary leader while ostracizing those who object to their ridiculous ridicule and expose their cowardly adaptation to a system which they falsely claim to oppose.

As the invasion force assembles and the media lynch mob questions Qaddafi’s sanity and criticizes his attire, Qaddafi vows to stand firm. His son has stated that “Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in Libya.” Some are waking up to the prospect of another invasion and occupation of an Arab land and haltingly raising objections. Israel and the Zionists are gleefully anticipating the prospect of Arabs killing Arabs on command, of further divisions being sown among the

Arabs and of the destruction of yet another Arab country. The multi-national corporate plunderers are licking their chops at seizing choice Libyan petroleum assets and the proceeds thereof.

I am not waiting to say “I told you so” until after another calamity has befallen. I have told you so before the fact, joining the distinguished company of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Jeff Archer in so doing. As someone with a deep attachment to Libya, the land where I was raised and whose people I love and care deeply for, I re-affirm my support for Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution and my unwavering opposition to imperialism and its invasion bandwagon. I urge all people of good conscience of whatever political stripe, color, creed or nationality to join me in resisting imperialism and its designs on Libya, the Arabs and all others.

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(Husayn Al-Kurdi was raised in Libya. His mother was a well-known Egyptian citizen and his grandparents are buried in Tripoli, Libya and Cairo, Egypt.)