For example, let us consider Libya with its classic authoritarian regime headed by the leader of the Libyan Revolution Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, governing the country for 42 years.
The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is the third largest African state and the first largest state by oil reserves on the continent with a population of 6.6 million people.
Libya has a unique form of government - Jamahiriya (the literal translation from Arabic - sovereignty of the people). De jure, Libya has no president; governing the country is carried out by people’s revolutionary committees. However, de facto a sole ruler of the country is Muammar al-Gaddafi, who formally does not hold any political office, but is the leader of the Libyan Revolution.
Libya’s population is homogeneous, about 95% (6,300,000 people) are Arabs; the other 5% are a nomadic Tuareg and Berber tribes. According to various data, in the country, from 1 to 3 million foreign workers are employed, whereby nobody even approximately can give an exact figure of foreigners legally staying in the country.
Social standard of living in the country, as compared with neighboring Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt is significantly higher. Prices of essential commodities are regulated by state to a considerable extent. In particular, a liter of 95 octane gasoline of excellent quality costs 200 dirhams (about 5 rubles), a loaf of fresh bread costs 50 dirhams (about 1 ruble), a 7 liters bottle of drinking water costs 750 dirhams (about 15 rubles). Overall, food prices are not much different from those in Russia, and this despite the fact that Libya is 100% dependent on imported food.
In Libya, all its citizens enjoy free education and healthcare. Everybody arriving in Libya must test the blood and pass fluorography. Overall, Libya is a safe country in terms of health; epidemic diseases, typical of African countries, are unusual to it, the percentage of AIDS cases in the country is one of the lowest on the continent.
In recent years Libya has effected arrangements to facilitate business dealing in the country by foreign companies, and entry into the country for tourists. A building boom began in the country; in the cities the world’s major construction companies erected new residential areas, paved roads, built large industrial, commercial and tourist facilities. For the first time in the history of the country railways construction began. The capital of the country got rid of the trash and began to resemble a civilized modern city.
It would seem a quite successful country, but in mid-February 2011 protests began here as well, which led to armed conflicts. There could be a few reasons for this.
Firstly, the Libyans have never been notable for a special diligence and thirst for education; an average Libyan was at most a self-employed taxi-driver, trader or member of the armed forces. At a time when the country was embarking on the path of large-scale modernization and small-scale private trade or self-employed taxi-drivers did not bring any longer required income, and to find more well-paying job one needed to have an education and self-actualization, it turned out that most of the population is not adapted to the changes. Therefore, the social tension began to rise.
Secondly, the Libyan society has the clannish structure. In the east of the country there are the clans who hold oppositional views. In the west there are the clans, kindred, or close to Muammar al-Gaddafi. This explains the fact that national turbulence was initiated just by opposition forces in the east of the country, inspired by the successful overthrow of power in neighboring Egypt.
An important dissent growth factor was also the fact that major oil reserves are concentrated in the Gaddafi-controlled west part of the country and proceeds from its sale are concentrated precisely in hands of clans, allies of the leader of the Libyan Revolution.
Thirdly, the high dependence of European countries from the Libyan oil (Libya is OPEC’s largest oil supplier to Europe) could make third forces provoke a conflict in the country for a subsequent military intervention. The occupation of Libya would provide a ‘third party’ an access to the rich oil reserves of the country. In this case, European consumers would find themselves depending on the power, which has liberated the Libyan people from the tyranny.
It should be noted that reports of riots in the country began to come from the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, and later became to be quoted by other major world news agencies. Under the conditions of Libya’s underdeveloped media infrastructure, and respectively, the lack of reliable information in the media the situation was strongly escalated in such a way that some Libyans themselves began to think over full-scale civil war starting in their country.
In the news there were constantly on-the-spot photos and videos, however, in most cases, these shots were taken either in Egypt or Tunisia. This can be judged, in particular by burning vehicle registration plates on the TV screen when cars with registration plates of Egypt, Tunisia and even Iraq were passed for cars burning in Benghazi.
The video under the caption “The carnage is already in Tripoli” demonstrated a collision on the waterfront in Benghazi. No evidence of El-Baida occupation by the rebels on the west of the country was given.
The Western media’s conclusions about air strikes on Tripoli were made on the basis of shooting with an extremely low-quality camera phone. Almost all information flowing through the world news agencies about the fighting in Tripoli, was categorically denied by eyewitnesses, including members of foreign diplomatic missions. At the same time the western news agencies by no means covered any point of view of the official authorities of the republic on the events in the country.
It was as if the media were rushing things, publishing information about ‘the opposition’s victory’ almost every hour. A week after the unrest in Libya influential Western editions as if at a command began to publish articles about the need for international military intervention to “rescue the Libyan people from Gaddafi’s tyranny.”
To date, the information campaign launched around Libya by the Western media, reminds NATO’s preparation to military operations against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, the only difference being that the undesirable regime was neutralized without direct military intervention.
The clanking arms as an instrument of foreign policy are passing. To realize geopolitical interests it is not necessary to sacrifice soldiers’ lives and tanks, suffice it to professionally and completely make use of the means of information and psychological impact, whose effectiveness is growing due to the Internet.
