US, European corporations rush to secure cut from Libyan war
Backed by the US and European governments that have spearheaded the military intervention into Libya, transnational corporations are now scrambling to secure lucrative oil deals, construction contracts, export opportunities and other profit-making openings in the war-ravaged North African state.
The New York Times last Thursday reported that the returned US ambassador to Libya, Gene Cretz, had briefed reporters following a ceremonial flag-raising at the reopened embassy in Tripoli. Cretz explained that about a week after the so-called rebel fighters had won control of the Libyan capital, he participated in a State Department conference call involving executives from about 150 American companies interested in the new opportunities created by the NATO-led bombardment.
“We know that oil is the jewel in the crown of Libyan natural resources,” Cretz reportedly later explained to journalists, “but even in Qaddafi’s time they were starting from A to Z in terms of building infrastructure and other things ... If we can get American companies here on a fairly big scale, which we will try to do everything we can to do that, then this will redound to improve the situation in the United States with respect to our own jobs.”
Cretz’s claim that “jobs” will be generated through Libyan contracts is absurd—the real purpose of getting “American companies here on a fairly big scale” is to generate profits. The ambassador’s remarks again point to the nakedly colonial character of the US-NATO regime-change operation in Libya. From the outset, the intervention was bound up with the imperialist powers’ geo-strategic calculations across North Africa and their economic interests in Libya’s oil-rich territory.
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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/liby-s26.shtml
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