Sirte: The Apotheosis of "Liberal Intervention"
There is no cause to doubt that, for whatever reason, the support
of the people of Sirte for Gadaffi is genuine. That this means they
deserve to be pounded into submission is less obvious to me.
The
disconnect between the UN mandate to protect civilians while
facilitating negotiation, and NATO’s actual actions as the anti-Gadaffi
forces’ air force and special forces, is startling.
There is something so shocking in the Orwellian doublespeak of NATO
on this point that I am severely dismayed.
I suffer from that old
springing eternal of hope, and am therefore always in a state of
disappointment. I had hoped that the general population in Europe is so
educated now that obvious outright lies would be rejected. I even
hoped some journalists would seek to expose lies.
I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
The “rebels” are actively hitting Sirte with heavy artillery and
Stalin’s organs; they are transporting tanks openly to attack Sirte.
Yet any movement of tanks or artillery by the population of Sirte brings
immediate death from NATO air strike.
What exactly is the reason that Sirte’s defenders are threatening
civilians but the artillery of their attackers – and the bombings
themselves – are not? Plainly this is a nonsense. People in foreign
ministries, NATO, the BBC and other media are well aware that it is the
starkest lie and propaganda, to say the assault on Sirte is protecting
civilians. But does knowledge of the truth prevent them from peddling a
lie? No.
It is worth reminding everyone something never mentioned, that UNSCR 1973 which established the no fly zone and mandate to protect civilians had
“the aim of facilitating dialogue to lead to the political reforms necessary to find a peaceful and sustainable solution;”
That is in Operative Para 2 of the Resolution
Plainly the people of Sirte hold a different view to the “rebels” as
to who should run the country. NATO have in effect declared being in
Gadaffi’s political camp a capital offence. There is no way the massive
assault on Sirte is “facilitating dialogue”. It is rather killing
those who do not hold the NATO approved opinion. That is the actual
truth. It is extremely plain.
I have no time for Gadaffi. I have actually met him, and he really
is nuts, and dangerous. There were aspects of his rule in terms of
social development which were good, but much more that was bad and
tyrannical. But if NATO is attacking him because he is a dictator, why
is it not attacking Dubai, Bahrain, Syria, Burma, Zimbabwe, or
Uzbekistan, to name a random selection of badly governed countries?
“Liberal intervention” does not exist. What we have is the opposite;
highly selective neo-imperial wars aimed at ensuring politically client
control of key physical resources.
Wars kill people. Women and children are dying now in Libya, whatever the sanitised media tells you. The BBC have reported
it will take a decade to repair Libya’s infrastructure from the damage
of war. That is an underestimate. Iraq is still decades away from
returning its utilities to their condition in 2000.
I strongly support the revolutions of the Arab Spring. But NATO
intervention does not bring freedom, it brings destruction, degradation
and permanent enslavement to the neo-colonial yoke. From now on,
Libyans like us will be toiling to enrich western bankers. That,
apparently, is worth the reduction of Sirte to rubble to NATO.
