Tag: Libya

Both the powerfully seductive myth of American Exceptionalism and the loudly proclaimed goal of “humanitarian intervention” in Libya’s civil war appear to be driving the narrative in US media and from the US Government.

But the history of US involvement and war in Vietnam and in the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and occupations, historically illustrate quite clearly the level of “concern” the US Government has for civilian populations, and US domestic policies the past few years at least illustrate the same level of “concern” re the American people. Why anyone would think developments in Libya will be different from those of any other US foreign “intervention” is somewhat of a mystery.

On Tuesday morning Paul Jay of The Real News spoke with Columbia University Professor Hamid Dabashi about the Libyan situation and US intentions there.

   JAY: So, Hamid, you have been studying the Libyan situation for years, and you’ve written about the Iranian situation. You teach at Columbia. So, first of all, what’s your take on what’s happening as we speak?

   DABASHI: Well, there are two takes. One is to take everything on face value that United States and its European allies are in this to protect the civilians and establish a no-fly zone.

   But we, given the history of United States and its European allies, have every reason to doubt that this indeed is the agenda.

   What has happened is–and for this difficulty, Muammar al-Gaddafi himself is the principal culprit–a peaceful, by-and-large peaceful revolutionary uprising in North Africa that has come to conclusion, perfect conclusion, peaceful conclusion in Tunisia and in Egypt, has been bloodied.

   And what we are witnessing today in the aftermath of this military operation by US and its European allies is further bloodying of a peaceful revolutionary uprising.

   In other words, what Muammar al-Gaddafi has done, the last and lasting contribution of Muammar al-Gaddafi to these revolutionary uprising, is to give United States and European allies a military foothold in the revolutionary uprising in North Africa.

   I see the events in Libya, the military operation on the eighth anniversary of US-led invasion of Iraq, in tandem with Secretary of State Clinton telling in effect the Egyptians that you had a peaceful revolution because of your military, and your military is our military, and then going to Tunisia to tell the Tunisians that she’s there to help them.

   In other words, what the US and its European allies are doing are trying to use and abuse the criminal atrocities of Gaddafi to get a foothold, diplomatic and military foothold, in the peaceful revolutionary uprising that we are witnessing in North Africa.

   …

   The United States and European allies had already intervened in the battle between Muammar al-Gaddafi and Libyan people on the side of Gaddafi, by arming Gaddafi to his teeth, both United Kingdom and United States.

   Also, professors from Harvard University to Princeton to Johns Hopkins, etc., were on the payroll of Muammar al-Gaddafi to whitewash his criminal atrocities and present him as something pleasant and acceptable. These are the contexts. So, suddenly, from the same political culture, from the same military culture, you cannot expect a situation that they are going in with shining armor to defend the civilians.

AjJazeera Live Feed (h/t Momcat) 4:45PM PST:

Early Saturday Morning:

The UN Security Council gives the go-ahead for outside military intervention in Libya, but who will lead the operation and where will be the centre of command and control? Western diplomats insist that Arab League forces must be part of the offensive. Meanwhile, the Gaddafi regime has declared an immediate ceasefire, but will words become action? Inside Story discusses.

AlJazeeraEnglish – 19 Mar 2011

[UPDATES 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 below the fold]

Crossposted at Daily Kos and The Stars Hollow Gazette

The extraordinary events in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are the initial high tides of an eventual tsunami that will impact the world that globalists have so fervently promoted for decades, in ways not necessarily to their liking. The first wave has struck and is now retreating from the shore, but will shortly return with redoubled force, and what and who will be swept away and what will be left standing is anyone’s guess.



[snip]

In the United States, 48 years after Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his stirring “I have a dream” speech at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, 45 percent of young African-Americans have no jobs and the top hedge fund managers are paid, on average, $1 billion a year, a thoughtful American can only expect the mass protests against cuts in services and jobs in Wisconsin to spread.

And America’s propensity for eventual chaos is far higher than the Middle East, demonized in the press as a violent region, when one considers that America’s 300 million citizens have between 238 million and 276 million privately owned firearms.

As a prescient 23-year old from Hibbing, Minnesota, Bob Dylan warned an earlier generation 47 years ago about to embark on its misguided mission to safeguard and democratize in Vietnam, “There’s a battle outside and it is raging, It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, For the times they are a-changin’.”

America has older prophets on the current situation – as Thomas Jefferson observed, “A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.”

Take heed, Governor Walker of Wisconsin and all the rest of you political leaders in Washington DC – or fuel up your learjets and head for the Cayman Islands.

The Extraordinary Events in the Middle East and the Coming Global Tsunami

By John C.K. Daly for the Global Intelligence Report

Juan Cole’s website is apparently assembled by an IRC-era net-bot with simple instructions like “Cole-Bot, get Egypt video!”

“5 Year Old Child Heads Demo in Alexandria Egypt!”

“And the wolf will lie down with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them!” -Isaiah 11:16

So judging from the Juan-Cole-Bot and genius reporters like Christiane Amanpour (“The Muslim Brotherhood only wants to support civilian democracy!”), you might think that Northeast Africa is a democratic paradise, except where the USA is propping up a demon like Hosni Mubarak!

So let’s take a little tour of the other prosperous, peaceful, and democratic regimes of that blessed region!

Immediately to the south we find ourselves in the Republic of the Sudan, which virtually nobody calls a “client-state” of the USA, and yet somehow even without the intervention of the Great Satan, those highly independent Muslims have managed to kill a few hundred thousand of their fellow citizens, and then a few hundred thousand more, and then..

Likewise neighboring Libya subscribes to the democratic principle of “one man, one vote,” except that the “one man” is Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, and his “one vote” is the only vote that counts.

And yet again, although nobody calls Libya a “client-state” of the USA, it isn’t easy to discover anything that most of us would recognize as “democracy.”

Rounding out the top right-hand corner of Africa we arrive at the Republic of Chad, where civil war raged for no less than 30 years between independence in 1960 and the ascension of General Idriss Déby around 1990, and General Déby still rules that unfortunate country 21 years later, and continually justifies his ranking as the 15th worst dictator in the world!

And once again, even without American support, Chad has somehow evolved into one of the most corrupt and un-free countries on the face of the earth!

But Egypt would have naturally developed into blissful democracy, except for the Great Satan’s puppet, Hosni Mubarak!

And a little child shall lead them!

Harharharhar!!!