Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Arab Revolutions Will Never be Made-in-the-USA
31 Oct 2012
🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

A year has passed since Washington’s Libyan proxies slaughtered Moammar Gaddafi, in what the West called an Arab “revolution.” But “revolutions do not emanate from Washington, Paris and London.” America’s erstwhile allies have jihad on their minds – not western notions of what the Arab Spring should like.

Arab Revolutions Will Never be Made-in-the-USA

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The men that Obama used to get rid of Gaddafi, and is now using to get rid of Syrian President Assad, have their own ideas about what constitutes a revolution.”

The New York Times noted the anniversary of the murder of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi in typical imperial fashion: with a combination of lies and exhortations. The Times editorial was titled, “Making Revolution Work.” Of course, the nine month long NATO assault on a country of six million people was not a revolution in any meaningful sense of the word. The largely Islamist fighters that butchered Gaddafi after his convoy was disabled by foreign aircraft, and who subsequently executed 100 other captives were acting as proxies for the U.S. and its NATO allies who, together, account for 70 percent of the world’s arms expenditures.

No genuine revolution in world history has been brought into being by the massed arms of the globe’s reigning imperial powers. This was the old colonial order, showing once again who is in charge in Africa and the Arab and Muslim worlds. Revolutions do not emanate from Washington, Paris and London.

The Americans and Europeans, including the old Italian colonial masters who killed one-third of the Libyan population when they were in charge, were joined by the thieving royal families of Qatar and Saudi Arabia – who rightly perceive any hint of revolution in the Arab world as the equivalent of their own death warrants.

The United States and its allies and proxies ignited race war in northern Africa, a slaughter of dark-skinned Libyans and black migrants that continues to this day – as does the resistance. How befitting its national character that the United States provoke an orgy of racist violence, and call it revolution!

Hillary Clinton encapsulated the imperial nature of the overthrow of Col. Gaddafi. “We came, we saw, he died,” said the bestial secretary of state, picturing herself as Julius Caesar. Clinton understood perfectly that Libya was a war of conquest and empire.

“This second round of blowback will make the first look like a schoolyard fight.”

The New York Times, which, along with the rest of the U.S. corporate media, acted as cheerleader for the conquest of Libya, now exhorts America’s former Libyan proxies, posing as a government, to disarm the rowdier elements in their midst, lest they tarnish the so-called revolution. We certainly don’t want any more U.S. ambassadors turning up dead. But the men that Obama used to get rid of Gaddafi, and is now using to get rid of Syrian President Assad, have their own ideas about what constitutes a revolution – Salafist, jihadist ideas that do not include continued U.S. domination of the world. They gladly accepted Washington’s money and guns, and remain grateful to NATO for incinerating the real heroes of the war, the Libyan soldiers who fought on for so long while death rained on them from the skies. But a favor or two from the Great Satan doesn’t alter these jihadis’ obligations to God, as they perceive them.

The new round of blowback has begun. The U.S., Saudi Arabia and Pakistan virtually created the global jihadist network to fight the Soviets, in Afghanistan – with results we have all witnessed. This second round of blowback will make the first look like a schoolyard fight. So, if the New York Times and Hillary Clinton and President Obama think they are now such great friends of the Arab revolution – they ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20121031_gf_LibyaAnniversary.mp3

More Stories


  • The Black Geography of HIV-AIDS
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    The Black Geography of HIV-AIDS
    01 Sep 2020
    When HIV-AIDS struck in Philadelphia, mostly white organizations and epidemiologists “were blinded to the kind of locations and geography” where the contagion might be centered in the Black communi
  • White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    White Capitalist Law vs “Uncontrollable Blackness”
    01 Sep 2020
    The United States “criminalizes Black Americans,” but Black men “are not looking to be controlled” by this racist system, said Douglas Flowe, an historian at Washington Univer
  • Biden Offers Nothing But More War, Austerity and White Supremacy – Without Trump
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Biden Offers Nothing But More War, Austerity and White Supremacy – Without Trump
    27 Aug 2020
    Biden is an unreconstructed racist and warmonger who has been in the forefront of austerity, and Harris is a party hack and mass Black incarcerator who became a prosecutor with police union endorse
  • Freedom Rider: Democrats are Officially Republicans
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Democrats are Officially Republicans
    26 Aug 2020
    The Democrats claim to be the opposition party, but they seek out Republicans, hate the left of their own party, and don’t seem to care if they lose the election.
  • U.S. Militarism toward China is Part and Parcel of American Hegemony Syndrome
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    U.S. Militarism toward China is Part and Parcel of American Hegemony Syndrome
    26 Aug 2020
        American hegemony syndrome has shifted public attention away from the critical problems facing humanity by demonizing China.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us