Mar 12 2012
Vijay Prashad on his New Book, ‘Arab Spring, Libyan Winter’
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Libyans protested on Friday against a call by regional leaders in the eastern part of the country for a self-ruled state. Tribal and militia representatives of the oil-rich area say the Barqa region needs to be semi-autonomous to stop the discrimination against its people that began under the ousted and killed dictator Moammar Gaddafi. Barqa encompasses nearly half of Libya, including the city of Benghazi, a stronghold of the rebel forces that toppled Gaddafi’s regime. Those opposing the move say it would potentially led to more regional demands for self-governance and destabilize the nation. Meanwhile, the National Transitional Council is calling on Niger to extradite Gaddafi’s son, Saadi Gaddafi, but the Niger government has declined, stating he faces execution in Libya. Moammar Gaddafi’s second son, Saif al-Islam, was imprisoned during the civil conflict and the International Criminal Court has been in communication with the transitional government regarding his health and a pending trial.
NATO intervention into the Libyan conflict was a highly controversial move. The Libyan Uprising began on February 17th 2011 during the Arab Spring after popular revolts in Tunisia and Egypt that forced out the decades long rulers of those nations. Moammar Gaddafi gained control of Libya in 1977 and was in power longer than Ben Ali in Tunisia or Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. He quickly began fighting back against protesters, using heavy artillery and airstrikes, horrifying his own citizens and international observers. Reports began surfacing that Libyan rebels were begging for foreign powers to clear the skies of Gaddafi’s war planes. A heated international debate erupted about the motivations of NATO countries and the long-term consequences for Libya should a new ruling government be indebted to Western powers. NATO began enforcing a no fly zone in mid-March of 2011. The conflict lasted for months and it wasn’t until October 23rd that the Libyan Transitional Council declared it over, three days after Moammar Gaddafi was captured and killed in Sirte by National Liberation Army soldiers.
Vijay Prashad, an award winning author and professor of International Studies has a new book coming out next month which analyses the unique trajectory of the Libyan conflict within the wider context of the popular movements sweeping Arab nations. Titled Arab Spring, Libyan Winter, it is a timely look at the cost of foreign military intervention as a growing faction within the US calls for similar action in Syria.
GUEST: Vijay Prashad, the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College. Vijay Prashad is the author of eleven books including, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World, which was chosen as the best nonfiction book of 2008 by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and which won the 2009 Muzaffar Ahmad Book Prize. His latest available in April is Arab Spring, Libyan Winter published by AK Press and LeftWord.
One Response to “Vijay Prashad on his New Book, ‘Arab Spring, Libyan Winter’”
I used to listen to Uprising on KPFA, sundays and found it very informative on issues like AfPak and with the Black Agenda commentary… However I must now take issue with the mis-characterisation of events in Libia.
Firstly, The airstrikes turned out to be largely be an interventionist myth-
and the Green airforces and anti-air defenses were either absent or simply not effective, Gaddafi could not depend upon the loyalty of many of his pilots.
Also the casualties reported turned out to be over inflated and even the Amnesty International has backed away from many of the claims that they making at the that time.
(Has there been much attention in regard to the post Gaddafi atrocities that have gripped the country since the NTC has taken hold??? )
Secondary, The Al Fatah Revolution happened in ’69… not 1977.
One might argue that Gaddafi took power at that time.
I fear that I am witnessing a disturbing revisionist trend that has spread like a bacteria to even so-called ‘progressive’ media, I mean just look at what has happened to Al Jazeera over the last yr. or so.