Abdel Hafiz Ghoga's resignation is a blessing for Libya. And it comes after Libyan rebels protested and forced the resignations of Mahmud Jibril as Prime Minister and Khalifa Hiftar as Supreme Commander of the New Libyan Army. Their appointments were pushed by the U.S., and they were suspected of being the CIA men assigned to take over the helm of post-Gadhafi Libya. Unfortunately, the National Transitional Council (NTC) is a group of former Gadhafi loyalists who didn't fight in the revolution, but have risen to the top with the support of the Western powers, and, therefore, are beholden to the Western powers, not to the Libyan people.

Fortunately, the constant demand by the Western powers for the rebel militias to disarm was not heeded by the rebel commanders, who suspected that the West wanted to install a sub-Gadhafi regime they could control. The NTC so far has been a revolving door of Western-backed former Gadhafi henchmen and bureaucrats who have taken the $ billions of released Gadhafi assets, but have done almost nothing to restore water, electricity, and rebuild the ravaged Libyan infrastructure.

The future of Libya should stay in the hands of the rebel commanders until elections are held and an elected parliament and leadership is elected. I hope that rebel commanders will demand that Libyans who were not residents before the resolution be disqualified from running for office. This will keep out foreign Trojan horses that foreign powers will try to have elected in order to secure lucrative oil deals, as well as to overpower Islamic-leaning candidates and parties.

Until then, the future of Libya belongs to the rebel commanders who liberated it - not to the foreign controlled NTC or its Western-selected and supported appointees.

Nikos Retsos, retired professor