RT TV LOOKS AT ITALY, LIBYA, AND FRANCE: A QUICK ASSESSMENT

As usual, Russian television is filling in some blanks left conveniently blacked out in the Western news media regarding Libya, and here one has to read between the lines very closely:

Libyan deposits turn Italy oily

If you've been following the unfolding European debt crisis, you'll have noticed that two leaders and their countries seem to be calling the shots: France's Nicholas Sarkozy and Germany's Angele Merkel. Recall that it was at France's instigation that the NATO action against Libya began, and the loser in this internal European polka is Italy, which had strong business ties to Libya, and imported a great deal of its oil.

While France was bombing and Germany was pledging to take a hand in post-Qaddafi Libya, these two nations were also meeting to decide on a future political integration of Europe to save the Euro and, with Germany propping up Italy, Spain, and Greece, it becomes increasingly clear that the shots are being called in Paris and Berlin. In short, Italy will no longer be the European power representing European interests in Libya, France and Germany have restructured the deal.

While the RT article doesn't go further than this, they lead right up to the edge of a conclusion that it takes little imagination to see: with American adventurism in the Middle East and Central Asia, and an increasingly bellicose attitude in Washington around the world, Europe -read France and Germany- is acting to protect and secure their own energy supplies. The Germans in paricular, as I have already mentioned this week, are also looking to Russia as a new energy supplier.

IN short, the geopolitical world is changing, and we are seeing the emergence, again, of a tri-polar world, with Libya the unfortunate victim of the jockeying between Berlin and Paris on the one hand, and Washington on the other. There will, of course, be smiles for the cameras when the leaders of the USA, France, and Germany get together, but expect behind the scenes for Europe to be giving voice to an increasingly independent tune. What emerges in the post-Qaddafi LIbya will say alot, and of course, we are already hearing the rumblings - voiced tentatively for now to be sure - that militant Islamists may gain access to Qaddafi's arsenal of weapons, including surface to air missiles.

I'll leave it to you to guess what they're setting the stage for...