In April 1986 I was on the wrong end of the British and American bombings of Benghazi (and Tripoli) in Libya. At 2 o’clock in the morning we were woken by the noise and vibrations of high explosives. We immediately turned on the BBC World Service radio, just in time to hear President Ronald Regan announce that because the Libyan government had (or had not) done something with which they disagreed, he had ordered the military to bomb Libya. And alas, as usual the British government seemed to just go along with the Americans.
The experience was interesting. The bombings probably only lasted 20 minutes, and as we were living in an area of Benghazi which was next to the airport (which was a key target), we were able to watch the explosions and smoke. As I did so, I recalled that during the Blitz, Londoners would sometimes go under the stairs as this apparently offered greater protection from a hit. However, I figured that if these bombs landed on the building, it wouldn’t really matter where I was! So, I opened the windows (to stop them being blown inwards) and watched the spectacle.
The next day was surreal. There was no traffic on the streets, and no one was outside. The personnel on the project on which I was working, gathered together in the Team Leader’s apartment. I remember wondering what to do that day: I was going to go into work, as that was why I was there, and didn’t know what else to do, but I was quickly dissuaded from this idea! So we just waited, wondering what was going to happen. However, the authorities took no action against us (as they rightly recognised that most of us had come to help their country and were there at some risk to ourselves). Within a few days, life largely returned to normal and we started working again.
The first impression I had was how trivial and unimportant my work seemed to be after such an event. There I was attempting (unsuccessfully) to improve the traffic management in Benghazi, whilst people had been killed and injured in the bombings. But that was only a single event. I can not but wonder how difficult it must have been to settle back into civilian life again for those demobbed after 6 years of war in the 1940’s.
But the overriding and lasting impression from the bombings was the tolerance and acceptance of the local people towards us. I never felt personally threatened and the Libyans remained friendly towards me, often openly discussing the events with me (albeit coloured by their own government’s propaganda). I could not help but wonder how I would have been treated if I had been a Libyan living in the USA (or Britain) after the Libyans had just bombed them.
I did not agree with many aspects of society in Libya and I would not have wanted to have lived there. However, this is not really important, because I realised that “there but for the Grace of Allah, go I”! If I have been born in Libya (and not in England) and raised there, then I too would almost certainly be just like them: I would speak like them, think like them and behave like them, and adhere to their societal norms. So who the Hell do I think I am to judge them by my standards? Who is to say that my value system is any better than theirs? And, how would I feel if they kept coming over to my country and lecturing me about the errors of my country’s ways, based on their values?
It just so happens that in general, I do support many of the values and principles upon which my Western society is built, and I defend these too. However, that does not give me the God-given right to pontificate and lecture about the wrongs of other countries’ ways, just because they are different from my own. I am frequently embarrassed by the moralising that Western politicians direct towards developing countries, interfering in their affairs without any real appreciation of their point of view or their cultural backgrounds. What often impresses me is the tolerance with which these other nations put up with our lecturing and moralising. I am quite certain that we in the West would not be anything like as tolerant if the shoe was on the opposite foot.
This Western moralising is I believe made even worse by the hypocrisy that goes with it. We expect there to be one rule for us and another for them, ranging from trade rules, to nuclear proliferation, migration and weapon sales.
It seems to me that it is high time that the West learned a bit more humility and made greater efforts to understand and accept the views, cultures and values of others. Yes, I do agree with many of the West’s values, but would it not be far more effective to engage others in meaningful discussions about these ideas, rather than trying to use our military and economic might to force them upon others? Surely there are enough examples from history to demonstrate that enduring change never comes about through force (whether it is economic or military or any other type of force)? And when others do not wish to buy into our values, then might it not be more effective to agree to disagree, accept that other societies may wish to run themselves differently and that this is really their affair, not ours? Whatever happened to tolerance and understanding in our apparently free and open societies?
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