West rushes to grab its Libya reward

11-07-2011 • Mail & Guardian

It certainly didn't take them long. Literally one day after the gory images of Muammar Gaddafi being dragged, kicked and stabbed through the streets of Sirte were broadcast worldwide, the announcement was made. It seems it was what everyone was waiting for. Some newspapers even called it "the starting pistol".

Britain's new defence secretary, Philip Hammon, announced that British companies should "pack their suitcases" and head to Libya to snap up lucrative reconstruction contracts.

It all sounds disturbingly familiar. Think of the American companies streaming into Iraq to aid the "reconstruction effort" after the invasion. If there was any doubt, this modus operandi may soon define what seems no more than a new form of neocolonialism in the Middle East. American, Nato (or both) armies will destroy your country under the guise of ushering in democracy, and Western companies will assume the lion's share of contracts to build it up again.

And with Libya's National Transitional Council having already announced it would "reward" those countries that were in its corner during the "revolution", it's anyone's guess who will be the biggest of the war profiteers.