David Cameron has said that: 'the time for action' has come because of Gaddafi ceasefire breaches and 'Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen, he lied to the international community.'
Should we trust Cameron, Obama or Sarkozy? No. Should we trust Gaddafi? No. Should we trust the rebels led by the National Front for Salvation of Libya? No.
None of the above have the ordinary Libyan peoples interests at heart despite why they say they are acting, all have their own agenda and once again it will be the ordinary people of Libya who would pay the heaviest price.
It is the hypocrisy with which the West operate that drives everyone crazy. It wouldn't have gone unnoticed with the speed at which the US condemned Syria yesterday while remaining next to silent on the Saudi military supporting the killing of protesters in Bahrain. The Saudis have even agreed to deploy their planes to Libya to enforce the no-fly-zone while Saudi protesters are brutally oppressed and suppressed in their own country.
And did I hear the UN threaten attacks on Libya for contravening the UN resolution while as we speak, Israel is contravening, and has contravened countless, US resolution with impunity with a supportive US vetoing any condemnation of them.
The armchair generals are out in force again, asking those of us who oppose the West's military intervention in Libya who we are to condemn thousands of innocent people to death by the hands of Gaddafi? My reply is who are they to condemn thousands of people to death by western planes?
There is every chance that this will end up as another debacle for the allies, we have form in this area.
The last time we decided on 'humanitarian intervention', against a tyrant who was slaughtering his own people, we managed to somehow make things even worse and leave the entire country in a mess that it's going to take a generation to recover from. On top of that, the civilian death toll topped a million.
This is a disaster waiting to happen. We'll do what we always do. Charge in, remove the government, get them to 'democratically elect' a western friendly puppet government, then leave, after we're satisfied that the country resources are nice and safe for the West.
This whole thing has nothing to do with promoting democracy or protecting Libyan civilians. It is about promoting western interests by controlling and directing pro-democracy movements in oil rich countries and it stinks.
8 comments:
lucy,
i don't disagree about the west pursuing its own interests. but who's should they pursue instead?
q
It's not that they do things for their own intrests q, it's when they say they are doing things for altrustic reasons that really has me throwing things at the tele. If Cameron, Sarkozy and Obama were worried that after the dust settles on Libya they will be left with an anti-western leader, then say it and face the brockbats for it. Don't dress it up as doing it for other reasons to make you look good or hide the real reason and hope that it is all over quickly.
face the brickbats as well
fair enough.
1. on this side of the atlantic we do hear the dirty side. i don't know what you hear on that side. we hear mubarack is flawed, saudi's flawed, shah or iran flawed, etc, but that they are willing to work with us - whether out of greed, power hunger, whatever.
2. if we want their cheap oil (which doesn't just make fuel but makes computers, clothing, car parts, toothbrushes, etc.) then we have to be involved one way or another. if we weren't heavily involved the soviets, nazi's and jihadists would all deny us access to the oil except at a price that would have made europe and the the usa second rate nations.
i'm not saying they don't feed us the garbage about democracy and freedom, i'm just saying that at least over here we at least hear that we are making deals with the devil.
q
This conflict is weird.
-The French and British are (at least nominally) leading the intervention and the Americans are (nominally) not in the driver's seat.
-Everyone has gotten cold feet from Iraq. This isn't Iraq or Afghanistan. Libya is more likely to be the next Rwanda than the next Iraq. After Somalia, the West got cold feet and as many as a million people got killed in the genocide because all the West could remember was how much they regretted going into Somalia. It was shameful that nobody tried to stop the genocide in Rwanda and it would be shameful if nobody does anything and Gaddafi kills multitudes of his own people.
-I think that everyone in the world is tired of Gaddafi.
-The decision on an intervention should have been made three weeks ago.
---Nog
"i'm just saying that at least over here we at least hear that we are making deals with the devil."
Over here too, Q. In fact, I can't think of a news source which doesn't acknowledge the cynical and self-serving nature of all our 'interventions'.
The government doesn't follow suit of course. If your's does, then they're more honest than our's.
Ultimately though, I blame God for putting all our oil under their sand.
But wait! Breaking news... It’s actually all going really well!
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