No Sympathy for Diplomats and Oil Workers Trapped in Tripoli

Go ahead and call me insensitive. I’m finding it difficult to muster much sympathy for the droves of frantic foreigners fleeing Libya.

Mubarak isn’t exactly Ray Romano, but let's face it, everyone knew Moammar Ghadafi was a homicidal maniac who could come unhinged at any moment. So what were all those Westerners doing there?

I wager that most were there to make money and didn’t much care about Ghadafi’s politics. They care now.

They may as well say to the Libyan people: Yes, I’d like to cash in on your resources, but I’m not one of you and I should not be subjected to the vagaries of dictatorship. At the first sign of trouble, I expect my government to charter a plane or a ferry to get me (but not you) out of harm’s way. Even though I write the checks that keep him in power, the Crazy Colonel is your problem, not mine.

I’ve heard about enough about the poor frightened foreigners, waiting at the Tripoli airport for two days without food. BBC Radio 5 was focused more on the earthquake in New Zealand when I was listening today. The only mention of the turmoil in Libya was a report on the efficacy of the Foreign Ministry’s efforts to evacuate British citizens.

These economic migrants are not the story. They are a parasite on the people of their host countries, sucking out as much as they can during their short stints in country while looking with blind eyes at the physical and mental brutality these regimes inflict on their people. The violence and repression in Libya didn’t start last week.

Of course, there are Westerners of Libyan decent, aid workers and others who I don’t include in this criticism. But the diplomats, I cannot exempt. There was only one motive for the West’s decision to reestablish ties with the Tyrant of Tripoli. And it’s a familiar one.

There’s a reason why working in in places like Libya can be so lucrative. It’s called hazard pay, and this is the hazard.

tags: Libya, Ghadafi, Middle East, Diplomacy, Oil, Tripoli, Qaddafi