Libya: Gaddafi Must Go
So the Oil Will Flow
by Dan Ehrlich

West has Selective View of Justifiable Humanitarian Action
Some European Union member nations and the USA are effectively at war with Libya, their unified goal being saving the lives of Libyans…or more specifically the lives of rebel forces and civilians opposing the country’s strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

The odd irony here being to save Libyan lives they are in fact killing more Libyans in bombing and missile attacks. But, these are people who may be supporting Gaddafi or people just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And that is, any time and place where the world oil supply is threatened.

The facts speak for themselves about who and what will cause a drastic military response from the major industrial countries. This is not to say that the action against Libya is not justified on humanitarian grounds. But it once again points out the glaring hypocrisy of these nations when dealing with tragedies that don’t affect their economies.

When Iraq overran Kuwait in 1991, the US lead Operation Desert Storm was immediately assembled and launched to protect the world’s major oil supply, which was actually Asia’s main oil supply. A gigantic buildup of troops, aircraft and ships from several nations were involved. Iraq was defeated and order returned to the galaxy.

Yet, less than a year later, when Serbs and Croats were attacking Bosnia, Daddy Bush just stood around with his hands in his pockets and tried fruitless non-military negotiations. More than 150,000 people, mostly Bosnian Muslims, were killed in a conflict that ran over into the Clinton Administration. But, when President Clinton tried to enlist British military help in creating a no-fly zone there, he was snubbed. This forced the US to go it alone. Through air attacks on Serb targets, the war was finally brought to a close.

The idea of Clinton being a gutless liberal was put to rest by this and the later US lead action in Kosovo, two successes without oil being involved.

On the other hand, in 1994 the West just stood by and watched the biggest genocidal campaign since WW2 take place in the small East African country of Rwanda where more than 800,000 people were butchered. Why wasn’t a no killing zone established by the West? Because it was also a no oil zone.

After 9/11 GW Bush needed a scapegoat and his Daddy’s old nemeses with weapons of mass destruction aimed the West was enough to re launch the Iraq War, the Final Fantasy. The realty was his desire to secure Iraq’s massive oil reserves, which had caught the eye of Iran. In the ensuing years of combat more than 4,000 US troops have been killed. The number of Iraqi deaths, mainly civilian, varies greatly from one poll to another, anywhere from 107,000 to more than a million. In any case, more people have died in this avoidable conflict than all the Arab-Israeli wars combined.

Back to the present, not too far south of Libya is the Darfur region of Sudan where around 300,000 Black Christians are said to have died as the hands of Sudanese Arabs in what some have termed a genocidal campaign. This conflict had been going on for years and yet no positive action from the West. Yes, there’s no oil in Darfur, just famine and suffering.

Over on the coast of East Africa an ongoing cat and mouse game is being played between Somali pirates and naval vessels from several nations. They are having some success in curbing attacks on shipping. But, more than 30 ships and 600 crew members are being held hostage in a lawless failed state that has become a terrorist training ground. If only someone would discover oil there maybe NATO would have the justification to invade and clean out the pirate and terrorist camps.

But for now, we have Libya as our latest humanitarian concern…not to forget Afghanistan and Iraq. Besides, we have only been putting up with Gaddafi and his erratic behavior because we had to. This is a good time to get rid of him…strictly for humanitarian concerns, that is.

No comments:

Post a Comment

comments here: