We have a duty to Gadafy's victims

REARVIEW:WE IN THE West have been very quick to point the finger of blame at Libyan dictator Muammar Gadafy and loudly denounce his brutal crackdown on protesters.

But while there is no doubt that his genocidal tactics should be unequivocally condemned, we need to take a look in the mirror before doing it.

For we too have blood on our hands. We are complicit. Without our backing, he wouldn’t have been able to finance the militias and mercenaries he used to subjugate his unfortunate subjects for decades.

Or course, Gadafy is not the only tyrant to profit from our voracious appetite for the “black gold”. It props up many other autocratic regimes and cruel dynasties across the Middle East and beyond.

For instance, the West happily supports the House of Saud – which is why King Abdullah was able to announce handouts of $37 billion (€26 billion) last week in a bid to dissuade the population from emulating their disaffected Arab neighbours.

Meanwhile, ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was allowed to rule with an iron fist for so long not because he had oil, but because he controlled the Suez Canal through which much of it flows on its way to Europe and the US.

Every government, including Ireland’s, is guilty of pandering to these people in the name of trade. Their attitude is that as long as they can maintain stability and keep the oil flowing at an acceptable price, they’ll turn a blind eye to their abuse, torture and murder. What the despots do to victims is not their concern.

But it should be. Blood is thicker than oil. We have a moral duty to ourselves, to our children, and – most immediately – to the repressed subjects of evil oil-rich overlords, to focus all our energies on making the big switch from oil and developing viable alternative fuels.