Libya and bin Laden,... is the West on a new killing spree?
No matter how horrific the 9/11 attacks were. No matter how repressive the Ghadaffi's regime was - including clusterbombing his own people. Still, we, "the civilized world" should show higher ethics.
And we don't. We use "an eye for an eye" tactics, meeting violence with more violence, having our hate and mass hysteria lead us. That's why I have been upset with the world lately.
I think it is immoral to wildly celebrate the murder of a man, even if he was a criminal brain who killed thousands. The more so as Bin Laden was not a cause. He was a symptom. A symptom of a divided world, mostly caused by decennia of frauded US foreign policy. A policy rooted in expansionism, religious discrimination and a hunger to dominate economically and politically.
Now bin Laden is dead, will the world be a better place? I don't think so.
Even worse, what happens in Libya. I have no respect for a repressive leader. I have no respect for any leader turning his arms against his own people to stay in power. But I also have no respect for an international community who miss-uses a pretty clear Security Council resolution to topple a government. Even if it is a repressive government.
The mandate given by the UN Security Council resolution on Libya (#1970) is very clear: protect civilians under threat of attack, enforce a no-fly zone, an arms embargo and a freeze of assets.
This is not what NATO does. NATO is executing a clear support operation for the "rebels", in their attempt to topple Ghadaffi. And that includes attempts to kill Ghadaffi. And nobody cries foul, because Ghadaffi is the bad guy.
Not even if one of the assassination attempts kills Ghadaffi's 29 year old son, and three of Ghadaffi's grandsons. All younger than 12. Only the West can get away unpunished with killing three young boys without being accused of war crimes.
After toppling the Afghanistan and Iraq regime, it seems we are all too eager to open up new war fronts. Wars to which we know no end. Wars which will lead to years long of human suffering. As in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
I am upset with the West, right now. And sad. Even more so when I see people celebrating the death of a person, when I hear all the joy on Twitter, when I hear all the cries of "This is a good day for the nation, God bless America". Just like "Gott mit Uns", the motto of the German Nazis.
If there is a God, I am sure he does not bless wars. I am sure he does not bless the killing of three small boys. Even if they were the grandsons of a cruel dictator.
Meanwhile innocent civilians are getting slaughtered in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. A civil uprising met with violent repression, very much like the one in Libya. But there... "Sssshhht, don't say a word! They are our allies!".
Despicable, that's all I can say. And we are all guilty of not crying foul.
Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order.
3 comments:
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Mahatma Gandhi, (attributed)
"Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary."
Mahatma Gandhi, 'Satyagraha Leaflet No. 13,' May 3, 1919
Seems there is no learning from the past.
Sigh, nothing is perfect but you know what.. When I see Eman El Obeidi, I think that justice must be done for the Libyans who have witnessed 42 years of atrocities:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/16/libya.obeidy/index.html
http://sijill.tripod.com/victims/
And so, I disagree. I do think that the hitting of military targets is needed; unfortunately G has used all types of media ploys (including claiming that his relatives were killed).
Where was everyone crying foul the past 42 years?
"Osama bin Laden was brought to justice" - that is the sentence that seriously drove me nuts.
I was puzzled about the justice of crossing international boundaries, and killing an unarmed being. "He killed many innocents, and he deserved to be killed" was the voice of many. I can name plenty who have caused the deaths of many innocents - will they follow the same destiny?
I spent the past two weeks looking for opinions out there. Mine is pretty clear - but have a look for yourself... Do a google search "was it legal to kill Osama bin Laden", and have a look at the results.
What i also found interesting is that while international lawyers express different points and attempt to be objective, i am yet to find any U.S. lawyer that expresses any doubt.
I find absolute certainties scary. I find people who have only certainties and no doubt scary. People who don't ask themselves questions because they know the absolute answers are scary. And if they also have the most powerful weapons in the world, and one of the strongest economies, you find yourself in situations where they initiate a war on assumptions, and they don't review them.
And, worse, nobody in the planet asks them questions.
Was the killing of bin Laden legal?
Were there Weapons of mass distruction?
Nobody will ever be accountable for having started a war, or having "brought someone to justice" by killing him, until we ask them questions.
gianluca
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