Delusional Illusions

The Arab, Islamic countries of the Middle East - virtually the entire Middle East of course - is hieratically, culturally rife with actively baleful aggrievement, through a prolonged and still-active history and heritage of clan and tribal warfare, blame, hatred and strife. The deeply-rooted exclusivity of one clan or tribe to another, the investment in an almost instinctive suspicion and base hatred one against the other, may be puzzling to the Western mind, but is well understood in the culture from which it emanates.

The visceral reaction of one tribal member to another's perceived insult, the generations-long memory of insults, assaults and unforgiveable transgressions remain active, at a low level, to be brought into full force of re-activated revenge-seeking at the earliest, most appropriate opportunity.

"The general was a tower, they got what they wanted from him and then took him out. He knew he'd die but he thought it would be on the front, not this way, in Benghazi and killed by his own people. Today we'll bury him, and then we'll take our revenge."

Unfortunate, and puzzling to the Western mind. Not so much to the Byzantine mindset of a people whose heritage as nomadic tribes invested in a religion devised to suit the needs of such people mired in historical grievances brought to the fore and acted upon. General Abdel Fattah Younes made his mid-stream choice on the horse of opportunity when he left his loyalty to Moammar Gadhafi and galloped into the future with the Libyan rebels.

His decision to join the National Transitional Council in Benghazi gave it gravitas and the respect of the West, whom they desperately needed, through NATO involvement, to give them a head start on their military campaign against the Gadhafi regime. His defection to the rebels, his rejection of his orders to crush the uprising also sealed his fate. He would be useful and used, until no longer useful and would then be dispensed with.

This is a line of reasoning that finds acceptance in a Bedouin community, and even more so, in Koranic scriptures of what is permissible to achieve the greater good in the name of Islam; deception when required to achieve the goal of success. Success is still elusive, the Gadhafi regime, despite the NATO pounding from the air, is still actively resisting the resistance, but it is tired, worn out, almost as much as the resistance.

A terse statement from Mustafa Abdel Jalil, confirming the death of the general, does not describe how his killers were able to breach the heavy protection around him, nor how he was murdered, or where they disposed of his body and those of his two aides. But not one single member of the rebel government saw fit to appear at his funeral which took place in a cemetery on the edge of Benghazi, the rebel stronghold.

General Younes had been called to appear before a judicial committee investigating military issues, it would appear. Of course this would have nothing whatever to do with the fact that General Younes that disputed the leadership of the rebel forces. The world abounds with mysterious occurrences. Some of them readily open to easy interpretation, some not.

Whoever naively believes that once Libya is free from Gadhafi's rule, it will become a law-abiding, liberty-guaranteeing, human-rights-respecting member of the international community may be delightfully delusional.