Peace, order and good government, eh?: Taking care of business

The Financial Post is pleased to report that Suncor Energy Inc., along with other oil companies, is preparing to return to the Libyan oil fields. After six months of intense fighting that shut down oil-production facilities and forced massive evacuations of expatriate oil workers, Libya’s future as a place to do business brightened dramatically as leaders of the Libyan uprising met with world powers in Paris to map out the country’s rebuilding and Canada lifted unilateral economic sanctions imposed last February. My emphasis. And that, after all, is what this has mainly been about, isn’t it? It wasn’t a matter of ensuring that Libyans could control their own destiny. It was about ensuring that the right Libyans ended up in control of the oil fields — the Libyans who were already on good terms with NATO countries, who were already in favour of privatizing Libya’s oil and who would be agreeable to giving easy access to the countries who helped them take control. Until recently I’d been thinking of NATO as an organization desperately seeking justification for its own existence since the original threat it was to protect against had faded. Now I think of NATO as just one more…

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Peace, order and good government, eh?: And this is where we juxtapose

Yesterday in the Guardian (with my emphasis): Nato will continue to deploy strike aircraft, spy planes and unmanned drones over Libya but will not put any troops on the ground to help the transitional council maintain law and order, alliance officials made clear on Wednesday. I’m sure that means just as much as the previous commitment not to put boots on the ground at all. Yesterday on CNN International: Special forces troops from Britain, France, Jordan and Qatar on the ground in Libya have stepped up operations in Tripoli and other cities in recent days to help rebel forces as they conducted their final advance on the Gadhafi regime, a NATO official confirmed to CNN Wednesday. … Qatari and French forces also have provided some armaments, the official said. The NATO spokesperson in the first article says that helping the new Libyan government to keep order is a perfect job for the UN. Knowing full well that the UN has few options in that regard that don’t involve NATO countries, he goes on to state that NATO would be pleased to help the UN if asked. I’m sure they would. H/t to Toedancer for the CNN article….

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