Dennis Kucinich writes: "Libyan rebels are now advancing on the capital city of Tripoli with the aid of NATO strikes; this is sure to result in a real bloodbath, as opposed to the one that was conjured in Benghazi this past winter. NATO is assisting rebels who are blocking food, water and medical supplies from coming into the capital city, and is stopping those who need advanced medical care from traveling to Tunisia to access it. NATO is bombing power stations, creating blackouts, and using Apache helicopters to attack Libyan police checkpoints to clear roads for rebels to advance."
NATO bombs paved the way to Tripoli. (photo: Xinhua/Reuters)
NATO's Bombs Led Rebel Advance
21 August 11
�
Whether Gaddafi goes or not, this costly intervention has thwarted peace talks and betrayed its 'humanitarian' mission.
n March of this year, the US, France, Britain and their North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies launched military operations in Libya under the guise of a "humanitarian intervention." US diplomats and world leaders carelessly voiced unsubstantiated claims of an impending massacre in Benghazi. You hear no such appeals to humanity while NATO, in the name of the rebels (whoever they are), prepares to lay siege to Tripoli, a city of nearly 2 million people.
Libyan rebels are now advancing on the capital city of Tripoli with the aid of NATO strikes; this is sure to result in a real bloodbath, as opposed to the one that was conjured in Benghazi this past winter. NATO is assisting rebels who are blocking food, water and medical supplies from coming into the capital city, and is stopping those who need advanced medical care from travelling to Tunisia to access it. NATO is bombing power stations, creating blackouts, and using Apache helicopters to attack Libyan police checkpoints to clear roads for rebels to advance.
Regardless of whether Muammar Gaddafi is ousted in coming days, the war against Libya has seen countless violations of United Nations security council resolutions (UNSCRs) by NATO and UN member states. The funnelling of weapons (now being air-dropped) to Libyan rebels was, from the beginning of the conflict, in clear violation of UNSCR 1970. The use of military force on behalf of the rebels, in an attempt to impose regime change, has undermined international law and damaged the credibility of the United Nations. Countless innocent civilians have been killed, and NATO air strikes continue to place many at great risk.
So much for the humanitarian-inspired UNSCR 1973 as a means to protect civilians. The people of Libya cannot take another month of such humanitarian intervention.
The leading donor nations of NATO - the US, France and Great Britain - have been free to prosecute war under the cloak of this faceless, bureaucratic, alphabet security agency, now multinational war machine, which can violate UN resolutions and kill innocent civilians with impunity. War crimes trials are only for losers. The prospective conquerors, the western powers and their rebel proxies, will then expect to be able to assert control over Libya's vast oil and natural gas reserves.
The US share of the war against Libya has probably exceeded the $1bn mark. This extraordinary amount of money for an intervention that Americans were told would last "days not weeks" could only be explained by looking at the war as an investment, and at control over Libya's wealth as an opportunity to make a return on that investment. Cynical? Then tell me why else we are at war in Libya.
Viable peace proposals, such as the one put forward by the African Union (AU), have been quickly and summarily rejected. If there is going to be a peaceful resolution of the conflict, the US must work with and empower the AU to ensure regional security. The AU has proposed a peace plan that would facilitate an immediate ceasefire, the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid, a dialogue between the Transitional National Council and the Gaddafi government, and the suspension of NATO strikes.
The use of force and ultimatums has not worked. As the war enters its sixth month, it is time for the US president and secretary of state to clean up the mess they've created with this needless military intervention, and to work to seriously to bring about a negotiated end to this war.
In June, I proposed a peace plan (pdf) derived in part from the efforts of the AU. This plan calls for an immediate ceasefire and lays out the principles necessary to create a framework to achieve reconciliation and national unity in Libya by a meaningful process. In its June report on Libya, the International Crisis Group stated:
"A political breakthrough is by far the best way out of the costly situation created by the military impasse. This will require a ceasefire between the regime and the Transitional National Council, the deployment of a peacekeeping force to monitor and guarantee this under a UN mandate, and the immediate opening of serious negotiations between regime and opposition representatives to secure agreement on a peaceful transition to a new, more legitimate political order. NATO and those states supporting its military action should facilitate this development, not hinder it."
I have recently received several reports indicating that a settlement was close, only to be scuttled by state department officials. Given that the department of state seems to have taken a singular role in launching the US into this war, it is more than disconcerting to hear that the same agency has played a role in frustrating a resolution to this conflict. There are viable solutions to peacefully end the conflict, if there is a desire to do so.
Continued military action promotes a cycle of violence that will persist whether Colonel Gaddafi is ousted or not. On 19 March 2003, the United States pursued regime change in Iraq. Eight years later, we're still wondering why the people of Iraq are not sufficiently grateful for our intervention, which has resulted in the death of over 1 million of their fellow countrymen and women.
How can we expect this grim manifesto of interventionism to ever result in anything but tragedy? It's time to end the war against Libya.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
I think that as long as most of the people in the world are people we don't know personally, we will be playing the game.
I discussed this on the OWS chat last year with two anarchists. After drilling down into their core, we found that what they really want is person-to-perso n management of our daily affairs, not impersonal authority doing that for us.
I wish I could envision a just society composed of anything other than small self-governing villages and nomadic bands of hunter-gatherer s, but I can't. Not as long as we are who and what we are.
What I can hope for is a stable system of checks and balances of power. We have never had a perfectly functioning system, but we have had one that worked better than this one does. I believe that TV-driven politics and the environment of ignorance that nurtures it are the core of the problem.
Same here, but I'm watching now as violent anarchists (not part of the Occupy Movement) are smashing windows and causing chaos in Seattle amid what should be a non-violent strike.
These people are all dressed in black and hooded and masked, as usual, and once they finished bashing in things, they disperse and remove their coverings and meld into the crowd of peaceful Occupy protestors.
Unfortunately, their violent actions deflect from the valid purposes for the strike and the overarching reasons for the Occupy Movement.
Will the violence EVER end in the US? Or will it escalate, and use a righteous movement to perpetuate it?
This saddens me deeply.
N.
excellent point FireFly
- using the power of government to get things by force that one normally can't voluntarily get from others is a huge magnet for those who are dishonest and uncaring of others and have no problem lying and pretending like they care to get the power that they want.
Complete disconnect from reality - people across the globe can read and comment on this foolishness within moments and that hard fact totally escapes you casting a huge shadow of doubt when you do stumble across some actual truth.
But in no way should people let up. We need to be heard and as Patrick Leahy just said. "KEEP THE PRESSURE UP." NOT VOTING IS NOT A SOLUTION. And having a Rove puppet as president is not the answer either.
When the producers - those who have "exploited" you with their goods and services like iPhones, and polar fleeces, and their gasoline, and their computers, their medicines, their cars and their best services for the lowest cost and you have "exploited" them with your money -- when they are over taxed and over regulated to the point of economic failure and THEY go on strike -- you better be ready to take care of your greedy selfish selves for once.
OCCUPY OCCUPY OCCUPY !
Gandhi style:
Step 1: Sit down and get arrested
PEACEFULLY
Step 2: When released a few hours later,
repeat Step 1.
Overload the whole system.
Where will they put all these people?
Guantanamo?
Concentration Camps?
and show their true face.
(google Gandhi and see how he managed)
It reminded me of a magnificent point made by Trevor J. Saunders, in the essay with which he introduces his translation of Plato's "Laws," in the Penguin Classics series. Writing on the institution of slavery, which, we are disappointed to obsserve, many great-souled people in antiquity could never quite get beyond (cf. the recent movie "Agora," which turns on the troubled relationship between the brilliant mathematician Hypatia and her slave), Saunders writes, "We [moderns]reject [slavery] utterly; yet it was as completely taken for granted in the ancient world as the employer-employ ee relationship today (which may itself in time come to be regarded with as much distaste [!] as slavery is regarded now."
And yet, it will never be easy to overcome the systemic evil of competitiveness , since we are sexually reproducing animals and social primates. Competitiveness , and zero care for the suffering of outsiders, is our original sin. The strikers today maintain a hope that we may yet overcome that sin. And for that, I love them, admire them, and stand with them.
Correction: Was intended to be a reply to the comment posted 2012-05-01 10:45 by Martintfre, not directed at the article's author Mr. David.
-----
I am reminded of the 'ask a bitter man' skit of years past.
I submit that there is a different 'Complete disconnect from reality', maybe from being stuck behind a computer only connecting (or being paid to connect) on comment boards.
When speaking of greedy selfish selves, do you mean all of those people who became rich by striking?
Randian-speak at its finest.
I used to be unable to deal with any criticism, now I look at criticism as an opportunity to turn anyones criticism of me right back at them! So instead of anonymous thumbs down, what is your solution to injustice?
Why did Monarvchy change or fall? Why did Communism change or fall? Why will NWO USA change or fall?
Same answer.... it's the reverse of your thinking..not exist to expand....expan d to exist is the Robyn Hoood idea when it crosses the National borders in war to sell more everything at homw and rid populations to destroy things to make more labor jobs and force the richest to pay more to the machine than the machine pays to them.
Unindustrial revolution your need, out with GMO weedicides etc, back with weeders labor, out with Combine harvesters for rice, back with paddyworkers. Out with I-pad, Iphone, back with I can walk postie labor etc. Out with digital billing back with book keepers.