Crossfire War – The Sad Economic Truth Behind the France-Libya Arms Accord

Crossfire War – Tripoli – Tehran – Khartoum Watch – Mediterranean – Northeast Africa Theatre: Tripoli – Tehran – Riyadh – Algiers – Rabat – Tunis – Khartoum/Gibraltar – Rome – Paris – Cairo; The Sad Truth – Economic Reality Behind the France – Libya Arms Deal – France DM Morin “If it’s not us, it will be others.”

Night Watch: BOULEVARD HAUSSMANN – The reason why I have this article based around Boulevard Haussmann is because it is where some of France’s most impotent industrial-banking services are headquartered and they are quietly celebrating the massive weapons deal just signed between Tripoli and the European aerospace weapons concern EADC, the world’s leading manufacturer of missile guidance systems.

AFP reports the sale amounted to 296 million euros (405 million dollars U. S.) and revolves around the Milan anti-tank missiles and state of the art radio-communications, the type used by military commands in their communication link with their forces in the field. That is the personal specialty of Libyan leader Colonel Moamer Kadhafi, his radio communication skills were crucial in his leading the overthrow of Libya’s monarchy in 1969. [ASHARQALAWSAT]

In addition, the Colonel has always been realistically aware that if the international community accepts a nation it therefore improves and increases its access to the latest weaponry in a worldwide, arms bazaar market. That is the reason Kadhafi made such a public show, nearly four years ago, to end his nation’s nuclear weapons procurement program because he knew most of the weapons used, in any war, will by no means be nuclear and they are of doubtful reliability. He also knows Tehran-Islamabad-Riyadh have enough nuclear warheads for the Jihad and the Islamic world’s main international supporter Beijing.

In the meantime, he wanted Libya to have a significant military presence in the Jihad; not only against the West but also against Islamic heads of state that have refused to support it and one of those leaders is right next door, on Libya’s eastern border, Egypt President Hosni Mubarak. So the Colonel extended and invitation to weapons corporations, who he knew are eager to make any deal they can and if they refused they may run the risk of going out of business or at least face the wrath of their private stock holders. He decided on a portable medium-range anti-tank missile system, the Milan, which has been manufactured since the 1970s and has been sold to the armies of 40 nations. [ALJAZEERA]

France Defense Minister Herve Morin admitted the truth publicly when he described the accord as “an agreement between a company and a country.” Morin and a lot of the public, in any country, know that it is the private sector-corporations, or in other countries state-enterprises that control government and only with their support can anyone, whether an elected official or in any government ministry, especially on a high managerial level, or on the command level of the military, are allowed to serve there. Moreover, they are not really serving the public, but the established society that owns the economy and in Russia’s case, the hard currency coming from Germany.

Morin also mentioned the weapons sale had been approved since February 2007 under former President Jacques Chirac. Morin justified the deal by saying, “We have to be clear about this. There is no longer an embargo. Libya is a country that has given up its entire military nuclear programme, and which is fully accepting inspection from the IAEA.” (United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency based in Vienna) “Therefore there is no reason for countries not to engage in discussions on modernizing the Libyan army. If it is not us, it will be others. There are many countries in this with Tripoli. The Italians, the Russians, British…”

Morin could have easily ended his sentence with ad infinitum; virtually any weapons manufacturer with more than a pistol to market has beaten a path to the Colonel’s door. As always, in high level, enormous profit situations like this, the corporate owners, executives and government officials selling and exporting the weaponry have blocked out any thought of how these weapons could be used either against themselves and their bases in the Mediterranean or against one of the West’s last Allies in the region, President Hosni Mubarak.

Before this year, or even summer, is over, they will find out. However, their mentality is no different from the servile, calculating board of director’s level of the same corporate – state enterprise state of mind that activated engineering services, which constructed military bases for Saudi Arabia-Iran. The same San Francisco based engineering firm, which was shown on CNN, its London branch office that was invited to Iran the day after the Gulf War ended in 1991. The reason the service went through London was to avoid the embargo on Iran imposed by Washington. Since then that same engineering concern has lost more than 50 non-questioning employees in Iraq.

I suspect one of the governments in Northeast Africa, closely monitoring this weapons accord, is the one to Mubarak’s south, Khartoum that has maintained close-strategic relations with Tehran for more than 20 years and will actively support the political – military forces in Egypt who want Mubarak removed. If Khartoum does not have enough of a state budget to make such a purchase then they can easily receive the money from Tehran-Riyadh-Dubai… ad infinitum.

www.crossfirewar.com

Willard Payne is an international affairs analyst who specializes in International Relations. A graduate of Western Illinois University with a concentration in East-West Trade and East-West Industrial Cooperation, he has been providing incisive analysis to NewsBlaze. He is the author of Imagery: The Day Before.