The first glimmer of European common sense, from Die Zeit, of all places. Many thanks to JLH for the translation:
Send Warships!
The EU is not powerless against the people smugglers in Libya. It could take action that would be both tough and clever. What is lacking, in truth, is resolve.
Commentary by Ulrich Ladurner
July 18, 2017The EU likes to claim that it is a gentle world power. Not a hard one, but a gentle one. Where others are waging wars, the EU talks, until the parties have succumbed to exhaustion. What is actually concealed behind the image of the gentle world power EU, is for the most part cluelessness and helplessness. This can be seen in the fact that Libyan human smugglers send immigrants into the Mediterranean by the thousands on inflatables. And what does the EU do?
It wants to prohibit the export of inflatables to Libya.
If it weren’t so tragic and shameful, it would be a belly laugh.
Does anyone really believe that the immigrant slavers will be impressed by an EU ban on exporting inflatables? Most of the inflatables made “for the refugees” come to Libya from China. Does the EU intend to sanction Beijing? We can just imagine the powers-that-be in China and Russia slapping each other on the back in amusement.
The truth is simple. The EU has allowed itself to be extorted by Libyan smugglers for years. The smugglers are prepared to let thousands drown in the ocean, and because the EU cannot be seen to allow that to happen, these criminals do a splendid business.
In point of fact, the EU is tolerating the world’s greatest market in human beings to proceed on its doorstep. That is insufferable. And it threatens the existence of the EU. If the stream of immigrants from Libya does not diminish, the battle over apportionment will tear the EU apart. Therefore, the battle against the human traffickers is of existential significance for the EU.
It is high time for the EU to be reminded that it was two EU countries — France and Great Britain — that pressed for intervention in Libya. Italy and the USA went along reluctantly,[1] and Germany stayed out of it, thanks to then-Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
This is not about retrospectively knowing-it-all. It is about determining the facts. At the time, the intervening powers had the very best contacts to the Libyan opposition. The flow of information was excellent, cooperation smooth. Only because of that could they ultimately overthrow Khaddafi. In other words, the European military and intelligence services know every warlord who holds power in Libya. And it may be assumed that the people who rebelled against Khaddafi, as well as those who fought for him are in the business of human trafficking — at least a large portion of them.
European governments also know very well to whom they should speak. They know names and addresses. They know to whom pressure must be applied. But the governments don’t want to do it, because they fear the consequences.
Libya is political quicksand. Every step must be carefully considered. But just proceeding as usual is unthinkable. So the EU must act.
What does that mean?
First, France could request a mandate from the UN Security Council, to counter the human trafficking in Libya itself. If that should not succeed, which is quite possible, then the EU will have to proceed without an international mandate. It should begin by penetrating Libya’s territorial waters, to prevent the traffickers from starting their victims on their perilous journey. To this end, the EU should send warships. If NATO participates — as in The Aegean, all the better. Human traffickers understand the language of force. And it would not be used against the immigrants.
Whoever considers that unrealistic, should recall that the EU quite successfully fought piracy off the coast of Somalia. True, that is another story and under different conditions, but it is a story in which EU creativity and determination worked together. A story in which Europe was both clever and tough.
Pictures:
A ship of the NGO Sea-Eye and a German naval vessel take Libyan refugees on board in April, 2017, ca. 20 miles off the Libyan coast.
Mediterranean (not shown): On Libya’s coast, the bodies of several drowned refugees have washed up on the beach. For days, staff of the International Red Crescent have been involved in recovery [of bodies] operations.
Note:
1. So how do we explain Benghazi? — translator
“First, France could request a mandate from the UN Security Council, to counter the human trafficking in Libya itself.”
Why does France need permission from the UN to defend itself and its interests. This is colossally wrong thinking. Just do it already.
The author doesn’t seem to understand that these problems are being engineered so that the only solutions can come from trans-national bodies (unelected, of course).
Each country must act in its own interest – so ask for permission from the UN means that a country has already ceded the right to self-defense. This is completely unacceptable and it shows the politicians managing the country are not leaders but timid and incompetent weaklings.
Interesting article, though, like the translator, I disagree with this: “… USA went along reluctantly…”
Then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said concerning Gaddafi , “We came, we saw, he died.”
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Some have speculated that a new great wave of migrants will be coming to Europe. My prediction is that it will not happen before Sept 24th, when Federal elections will be held in Germany to elect the members of the Bundestag. A new great wave of migrants before the election would hurt the election chances of the migrant’s friend, Merkel.
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Respectfully disagree, RfC. All relevant German parties pursue the same permissive, if not downright encouraging, immigration policy. The elections in September play no role here.
The immigration wave is happening right now.
Smoke and mirrors …
It’s almost impossible for any election in Europe ever to result in a government being formed that doesn’t adhere to the elite’s desires. If an undesirable political party receives a slight majority then coalition talks are delayed and stalled for months or years. This happened in the Netherlands recently. Or a government mysteriously falls and an EU-appointed new government and Prime Minister are installed, as happened in Italy fairly recently. The EU has subverted democracy in its own bureaucracy, and in member states. The EU and Germany want the destabilization of the migrant crisis, so it will definitely continue.
I agree with you. The commentator assumes the EU to be a blunderbuss, rather than an evil puppeteer. Never underestimate the explanatory power of simple idiocy, but I think evil intentions is a much more satisfactory explanation in this case.
The big mystery is why does the European elite persist in creating a government which will obviously displace and persecute them? Someone said it is not the rulers who create revolutions, but the privileged second-level elite, who feel they, and not the actual rulers, who should be in charge.
Your idea that the second-level elite, what Drucker called the managerial class, think they should be in charge is an intriguing one, worthy of further study. They certainly populate our Deep State bureaucracies and can easily throw a spanner in the works of those who make edicts from on high. They didn’t with Obama because they were in agreement with his radical leftist agenda.
If you recall where you found that information, it would be helpful to know.
You think it’s incompetence or is it all planned by the leftists who run the EU?
These maniacs were delighted to see Libya broken, just as they’re pleased to see Syria torn asunder. And let’s face it, mostly young black men from neither the Near East or Libya are seeking the Dole, a kebob shop, and sex with Euro-girls.
Anarchists…the old name for Marxists….love it all. In closing will the Karl Marx alumna or the communist party SDP candidate win in Deutschland?
What DID happen to the Holy Roman Empire as the Ummah consolidates for ever more attacks since the 7th century A.D.?
Send war ships, send the inflatable boats back. If the Libyans protest about it and try to stop it sink all their navy.
Capture and immediately execute all smugglers.
Greece has so many uninhabited islands that some might be used as concentration camps. All illegal migrants should be put there and told they will never set foot in Europe. Australian detention centers style.
From there you can check the ones who are persecuted minorities in their countries. All of the others should be sent back.
That would be an excellent start.
Unfortunately we shall soon see a few “desperate” women
On rubber dinghys threaten to throw their babies into
The sea unless they are “rescued” and then all the bleeding
Heart liberals will start bleating again.
Has Europe actually got the stomach to counter such
Blackmail?
That is correct.Put the migrants on our uninhabited islands.
BUT the Europeans have not understand that this invasion
serves the idea of Gudenhove-Kallergi for a mongrel
Europe,so the migrants are put into our cities and it is
planned to stay here.
If we do not understand that we are doomed to extinction.
” If the Libyans protest about it and try to stop it sink all their navy.”
Funny enough, the news reports I read said the Libyan navy tried to intercept the smugglers. The Libyan navy has one or two boats, but the Libyan government has been straightforward. It was remnants of the Libyan militia that actually saved the remaining Americans in the Benghazi embassy, even though the US had engineered the murder of Ghadaffi.
France does not need to send warships into Libyan territorial waters. All it has to do is what the Australian navy does. It lurks outside of Indonesian territorial waters, and when it sees a boat full of illegal immigrants heading our way, it intercepts it, and puts them aboard a special boat with just enough fuel to get back to Indonesia. We haven’t had a boat attempting the journey for a couple of years now.
What works in one place will not work in another. The smugglers are known to have scuttled their boats and jumped off when a European ship approaches. They force the choice between picking the people up, or letting them drown.
And, it’s not so easy to let the people drown. Any ship commander who does so will be labeled a criminal, and have interpol warrants issued on him. That’s a hard spot to be in, even if your government supports, you, and the European governments are quite likely to throw any individual showing initiative to the wolves.
Why would it not be possible to pick them up and make a return trip to their port of origin. Surely maritime law allows that?
Well, here is my reasoning.
If you have a ship, you can easily prove it came from a point of embarkation.
If the ship is sunk, you are transporting individuals and dropping them off on a shore. You have no evidence at all that that’s where they came from. If the country involved has any government at all, the government would not allow you to simply drop them off. Of course, if you have a navy and they don’t, you could anyway, but you have to be willing to overlook the legal niceties.
What does maritime law say? Do you happen to have the code to hand?
So what would the Chinese do?
“The Australian navy … lurks outside of Indonesian territorial waters, and when it sees a boat full of illegal immigrants heading our way, it intercepts it, and puts them aboard a special boat with just enough fuel to get back to Indonesia. We haven’t had a boat attempting the journey for a couple of years now.”
Flipping brilliant! Trust Oz (and its delightfully less-inhibited folk) to arrive at such an unvarnished riposte. As in, a not-so-binary option of “Open Seas” (with inadequate supplies), or a successful “Return-to-Base” without any possibility of fruitful invasion.
Placed within a (failure-assured) context of current “immigrant” forays into the EU, the long-term savings derived from turning back just one boatload of Mediterranean “economic tourists” could finance purchasing another HUNDRED or THOUSAND of these flotation-based, one-way-tickets back home.
Of course, this sort of uncompromising attitude about maintaining Europe’s territorial integrity is so unbearably “waycist”, that nobody involved could bring themselves to admit that such an ongoing invasion of semi-retarded, birth-defect-riddled, ultra-violent, disease-laden, sexually abusing, rape-prone “refugees” is any sort of threat to Western (i.e., European) Civilization.
Worst of all is that legally acceptable deliveries of appropriate justice to those who have enabled (or enacted) this ongoing tsunami of retarded, ideologically-driven, predatory slaughter will NEVER reach the most culpable core of those drivers until it is far too late.
This is the essence of, “après nous le déluge“.
Someway, somehow, someone needs to find a way of delivering a timely and adequate degree of comeuppance to these vicious, parasitical, vampires … along with their pet Muslims.
It seems to me that the EU is either a staggeringly incompetent, bumbling comic opera, stuffed with strutting, overpaid, naked, indecisive Imperial idiots, or it chooses to depict itself as such in order to advance the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan without the peasants realising it is them doing so. The EU potentates doubtless prefer being laughed at to being shot at, which they doubtless would be if they confessed to the latter.
Given the almost certainty that within a few years a so-recently-civilised Europe will have collapsed into a cess-pit of Islamic squalor, debauchery and violence, whether it is due to the EU’s stupidity or its deceit seems somewhat moot. Either way, I think it is high time the populace did start shooting their bosses, preferably metaphorically so that their civilisation can be rebuilt with the minimum of destruction (both emotional and material).
It seems somewhat superfluous to point out that pretending the scuttling of rats in the loft must be just the rattling of the wind is not likely to end well. But clearly there are plenty in the corridors of power and media who, either abjectly or obtusely, refuse to face that simple, well-known observation.
Or do they, for reasons they wish to keep from the residents, want to encourage the proliferation of the rats?