Vicki Buck
And if , and its a big IF, the Nato group destroy Gaddafi will they rebuild the country and take the oil? What's the chances that Halliburton will be in there for the contracts? We wish it was simply a matter of doing good, and applying some of the doctrines of international law. But the application of those doctrines seem to be very selective. We're willing to bet that no matter how many people are killed by the regime in Syria or Yemen that Nato will not intervene.
Nothing suggests to us that the invasion of Libya is about standing up for the rights of the protestors. What will happen when Libya has its own elections and happens to elect people or parties that do not have the interests of the US and Europe at heart? Do we remember Palestine?
Cynical we may be , but it's very hard indeed to believe for a moment that this is a generous humanitarian gesture. Mainly because no such intervention has ever happened in countries who have had leaders even worse than Gaddafi. Mugabe has killed and starved people , brutally and horribly, for years and has brought Zimbabwe to ruin. Any intervention ?
There is clearly something that the West see they want in Libya.
Its not democracy , we fear, given that they have supported Gaddafi for the last few years and also many other dictatorial regimes in the Middle East. Bets on it has to do with the geographic position of Libya, close to Europe, and sitting in the middle of a troubled region and the fact that this sparsely populated country exports oil at 1.2 million barrels per day. The next Western base at the top of Africa?
Here's the hard bit . There was such hope in the world when Obama was elected that the cynical self interested aggressor actions of the Bush era were well and truly behind us. That dream has been shattered. But the other hope was that as the West acted aggressively in the middle East and nearby it would have learned that while the might of the military made the initial invasions seem easy, the getting out was hugely difficult and the unintended consequences were often huge.
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This can be justified by international precedent as perhaps in Rwanda. But this one does look like they could go and create a base for themselves in Libya because Gaddafi has no friends. I think he will fight long and hard , and there will be many deaths come from this,but I can see both arguments.I agree though that I dont know how they get out of there , and is their mission actually to depose Gaddafi or to protect the protesters.How far towards Tripoli do they go - they seem to be headed all the way
Written in March 2011