At the beginning of February we had foreseen it (read article): Italy takes notes and is preparing to execute orders. "Now the Libyan question is yours". The request to send a large contingent of troops to Libya this time comes directly from Ambassador John Phillips, now more in the guise of governor than in that of diplomat in Rome.
We had imagined an intervention around April, the minimum time to allow two facts to mature:
1) the formation of a national unity government in Libya;
2) Syria's exit from international news.
The first event, as already written in January in this column (read article), did not occur. The fake institutional government of Tobruk, in whose credibility Europe seeks its own, represents only itself and the economic interests that revolve around Cyrenaica, Total, Shell and British Petroleum above all. The war of 2011 wanted by the Americans and started by the French without even warning us essentially served this: to allow those who were not there (or there was little) to take part in the Libyan energy cake.
Italy, besides being forced to renounce the privileged relationship built with Libya in the last years of Gaddafi, finds itself in the uncomfortable position of defending ENI's interests precisely in the toughest region, Tripolitania, the one where Islamist gangs have federated such as alter ego in Tobruk. Not surprisingly, the kidnapping and killing of Italian hostages took place at 60 km from Tripoli.
The second fact is closely linked to the progress of the Syrian war: the more Assads and Russians win and reduce the geophysical spaces of the Islamic State, the less they must talk about it. The collateral problem is that the Jihad Global is being transferred from Syria to Libya, thanks mainly to the efforts of Turkey, the main sponsor of the Tripoli cartel.
Libya, therefore, is becoming the terminal of all the errors and filth in the last 10 years between Maghreb and the Middle East.
Who still had doubts about the good faith of the Arab Spring is served. Especially the flag bearers of freedom, ready to get excited about the fall of a rais but slow to understand that when you remove the lid of a pot, it would be good to ask yourself what and above all who gains from it ...
The truth that everyone pretends not to see is in fact essentially one: the elimination of Gaddafi was an irreparable mistake because it is equivalent to having torn a dress sewn with difficulty and having at the same time removed the cork to a continent in full boiling.
To get rid of the uncomfortable colonel for us Italians was triple damage:
- at humiliation costs we were able to mend a useful agreement with our energy banks; doing during with the privileged relationship with Moscow, Italy up to the 2010 could count on bilateral relations that were fruitful on a strategic level but evidently considered inconvenient by France and the USA. The first because competitors, the latter as our giving agents;
- we have brought chaos a step away from home in a situation that is, if possible, more complex than the Syrian one (we will return to Libya in this column);
- we will have to hurry, without even the official support of that government of Tobruk that we are anxious to consider legitimate.
Today's Libya resembles a laid table that someone has decided to overthrow. As hosts, we went first to diners, then even to waiters who were asked to clear the table and put them in order.
While Libyan gold is in London and the accounts are made between Paris and Washington, we will remain the honor of the internal debate.
The jumble of declarations and denials has already started: military intervention yes, military intervention no ... With our people already present on the ground, the country, anxious to divide itself on something, will soon split between "warmongers" and "pacifists" without understanding and without to realize that the Libyan dilemma, rather than "war or non-war", should have only concerned the legitimate defense of our national interests. We are not used to thinking like this and once again we make the figure of a poor fool who, with the promise of an egg, has been stolen an entire chicken coop.
(Photo: الجيش الليبي)
