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Monday, May 16, 2011

Stop the War Against Libya



Back in March, when the military action against Libya began, I wrote:


Both in 1999 and 2003 our leaders lied to us about the real reasons for our country's involvement in military conflict. How can we be sure that what is happening in 2011 is any different?

Well, surprise, surprise, it wasn’t any different.

In March, we were told that we were getting involved in Libya in order to save civilians in Benghazi from being massacred. Nearly two months on, and it’s obvious to all that this ’humanitarian intervention’ is about ’regime change’- (which is illegal under international law) and destroying the country’s infrastructure.

Stop the War have called an emergency protest for 5pm tonight, at Downing Street, Whitehall, London SW1A 2AA, at the time when Parliament is debating Libya. Do try and get there if you live in London.

Our political elite have dragged us into yet another military conflict- at a time when they tell us there’s no money for public libraries and youth centres.

9 comments:

ursula said...

So what are we going to do about it? I really want to know what to do about it. Ushivon@googlemail.com

Unless we are indited for war crimes and the politicians are stripped of their wealth and incarcerated, Hague, Blair, Cheney Foxy, Cameron, I do not want Gaddafi accused. I like Gaddfi and think these rebels are insidious

brian said...

FYI on libya and how the war began:

The War in Libya:
Race, "Humanitarianism," and the Media
by Maximilian Forte
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/
================
ICC and Libya:
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24819

Gadaffi the pan african:
http://blackagendareport.com/content/libya-getting-it-right-revolutionary-pan-african-perspective


'At the outset of the revolution, Qadhafi vowed to house every Libyan, many of whom were still living in tents and houses made out of flattened oil drums. He also vowed that his own parents, who lived in a tent in the Sirte desert, would not be housed until every Libyan was housed. He fulfilled that promise, his own father dying before he had the opportunity to move him into a home. Large scale housing construction took place right across the country, all Libyans being given a decent house or apartment to live in rent-free. In Qadhafi’s Green Book it states: “The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others.” '

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24763

brian said...

Ursula,
what you can do is join the growing chorus those opposed to the war on Libya...
one group has been taking fact finding trips to Libya:

'Global Civilians for Peace in Libya in Tripoli today visited sites struck by NATO Bombs in Tripoli, including Colonel Ghaddafi's residence where his Son, Saif Al-Arab Gaddafi, killed along with three of his Grandchildren on 30 April 2011.

The team also attended a ceremony at the Boy Scouts of Libya Building in Tripoli, the release of 230-former Rebels who had been captured from Benhgazi, Misrata and other areas, carried-out in the presence of the world media, Tribal Chiefs from all over Libya including near Benghazi. This rebel release is a mark of the Libyan government’s reconciliation policy. The delegation was invited up onto stage to explain our mission and were received with enthusiastic applause

http://sonsofmalcolm.blogspot.com/2011/05/second-update-from-peace-mission-to.html

also the Serbs are esp acting to get the facts of the matter out using such tools as Facebook, as they see in these attacks on Libya.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-for-Muammar-al-Gaddafi-from-the-people-of-Serbia/143360419060495?sk=photos


Also , there is a spanish blogger in Libya:
Leonor Massanet, reporting from Tripoli
http://leonorenlibia.blogspot.com

brian said...

and yes the 'rebels'(really insurgets are insidious:

nogte that Gadafi is apan-africanist, whereas many east libyans arent:
racism in Benghazi:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/race-and-arab-nationalism-libya

jihadis in east Libya:
http://tarpley.net/2011/03/24/the-cia%e2%80%99s-libya-rebels-the-same-terrorists-who-killed-us-nato-troops-in-iraq/

during a live TV debate, when challenged about Gadffi killing 10000 libyans, the TNC spokesman did this:

LIBYAN CONTRA LEADER WALKS OUT OF TV DEBATE WITH SONS OF MALCOLM
http://sonsofmalcolm.blogspot.com/2011/04/libyan-contra-leader-walks-out-of-tv.html

The TNC are into privatising Libya, and no need for brutal arm twisting by US/EU:


'The idea of taking the property of the people and handing it over to a few oligarchs and crony corporations is nothing new to Dr. Tarhouni, so this request shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. This is essentially what Tarhouni argued for in 1994 at a panel discussion at the globalist Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Most participants argued for privatization and a strong private sector economy.” That is a statement culled from a report of a panel discussion entitled “Post-Qaddafi Libya: The Prospect and The Promise,” organized by Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies in 1994.[1] Dr Ali Tarhouni stated at the conference, “with privatization, entrepreneurs will reach out and get involved in regional cooperation by searching for markets.”[2] Is that what the long-planned, well-funded “spontaneous revolts” now toppling regimes like a house of cards is actually about?” Dr. K. R. Bolton

http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/al-qaeda-linked-rebels-in-libya-need-more-money-so-they-come-to-congress/

so, yes,they are insidious.

jock mctrousers said...

Great stuff, Neil and Brian - very much appreciated. Sad that even now, the elites can still trot out the 'humanitarian intervention' bit, and many leftists still want to think that this time it's different. Even if there was a case for it (which I don't believe) the US/UK don't DO 'humanitarian intervention'.

Douglas said...

I hereby confess bewilderment about the Libyan War. President Obama has just poked Congress in the eye by saying the War Powers Act doesn't apply.

I consider the distinction between NATO and the US to be an act of legalistic sophistry.

While I am no fan on Col. Gaddafi, I am nervous as to the links between the rebels and Al-Qaeda. I'm not even sure America is fighting on the right side.

I dispute the whole "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine of war. I believe it will eventually be used to justify other wars that have no other good reasons.

Anonymous said...

waht do we really know about Gadafi or Libya: Gadaffi is said to have piled up billions in bank accounts, but is this really true?
----------
Libya’s money
In Tripoli the “journalists” of ABC asked me how long Gaddafi could last financially?
I answered them much longer than the US.
They couldn’t believe me and continued: ”no seriously, how many months can he last?”
My answer, 10/20 years, brought a very big surprised expression on their faces: “NO, impossible”.
Our society of money changers and bean counters is not able anymore to think about a solid society, not based on debt or credit.
Libya has known an embargo for decades and a real ostracism for 42 years.
Gaddafi was never understood nor accepted. He was declared crazy and loony from the very beginning because he didn’t accept the orders from his “betters”. His feeling of oppression by the Western powers that be and afterwards his betrayal by the Soviets convinced him to look for an alternative solution, based on their native tribal structure.
He didn’t spend money because he couldn’t, the embargo obliged him to save money.
This frugal lifestyle wasn’t really bad for the country, they learned to live with it.
Only the Western educated and latter “revolutionaries” wanted more pieces of the cake.
I have seen governors of provinces, with budgets of billions, walking around in old army fatigues and plastic sandals, driving in old Toyota Corolla’s, with absolutely no desire for more luxury.
Gaddafi himself is of the same ilk, money doesn’t drive him, the fate of his country is his only driving force.
If that is enough to consider him a lunatic than he will proudly declare himself a lunatic.
As far as the money of the country is concerned, the calculation is rapidly made.
The total revenue during 42 years went far over a trillion dollars.
During the embargo time Libya spent only the interest of its investments, they didn’t touch their capital.
They had some amounts in foreign, US, European and Arab countries and banks.
That money was continuously siphoned off by those banks, they didn’t receive any interest on their money, the paid expenses every year on that money, pure highway robbery.
Gaddafi is a very astute investor and made several very good investments worldwide, which saved Libya a lot of money and kept their capital intact.
Today Libya is still sitting on a cash hoard of far over one trillion, the second largest after China, but safer. China has too much worthless US paper.
Because of his cash position, Libya was thinking to make Africans benefit of their commodities by introducing their own gold backed currency and their own Reserve Fund.
This would have shown the decrepit situation of the world credit system and the real abysmal situation of the Western banks.
Because the emperor had no clothes anymore Gaddafi had to disappear.
Russia and China are still hesitating what to do and whom to join. The sirene songs of Wall Street are very seductive but extremely empty. The main US corporations are already voting with their feet to Asia, just in case.
I hope Gaddafi survives the criminal onslaught and will have the chance to see his enemies crumble. The stakes are extremely high.
http://mercurymail.blogspot.com/2011/05/libya-turmoil-142-libyas-money-in.html
--------
Brian

Anonymous said...

What you dont know about the libyan crisis

Video from Beloved Libya

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_62878.shtm

Brian

Anonymous said...

Isnt it ironic that the US and NATO who fight jihadis in afghanistan and whinge about their war no terror and how necessary are their troops to fight them there....suddenly can be seen giving air support to the very same jihadis! but in Libya...
This confirms the war on terror is a fraud.
-----------
In the Theater of the Absurd: US-NATO Support "Al Qaeda in Libya"
by Gerald A. Perreira

...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24763

Brian