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Libya: The Lies That Launched Another War

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by poncho, Nov 10, 2011.

  1. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    Hugh Roberts' new article in the London Review of Books is the best story I have yet read about the war of regime change in Libya. It is meticulously detailed, rich in context -- historical, cultural, political -- carefully measured and soberly expressed.

    The article should be read in full -- anyone who cares at all about a deeper understanding of these events would be foolish to miss it -- but I want to highlight just one aspect: the deliberate falsehoods -- fanned by the media, including many "progressive" voices -- which were used as a justification for the Western military intervention.

    Roberts first details how the Western powers and the Libyan rebels repeatedly rejected all opportunities for a ceasefire in the conflict -- despite the fact that a ceasefire was the first and chief demand of the UN resolution used as the authorization for the Western attacks:

    Resolution 1973 was passed in New York late in the evening of 17 March. The next day, Gaddafi, whose forces were camped on the southern edge of Benghazi, announced a ceasefire in conformity with Article 1 and proposed a political dialogue in line with Article 2. What the Security Council demanded and suggested, he provided in a matter of hours. His ceasefire was immediately rejected on behalf of the NTC by a senior rebel commander, Khalifa Haftar, and dismissed by Western governments. ‘We will judge him by his actions not his words,’ David Cameron declared, implying that Gaddafi was expected to deliver a complete ceasefire by himself: that is, not only order his troops to cease fire but ensure this ceasefire was maintained indefinitely despite the fact that the NTC was refusing to reciprocate. Cameron’s comment also took no account of the fact that Article 1 of Resolution 1973 did not of course place the burden of a ceasefire exclusively on Gaddafi. ...

    London, Paris and Washington could not allow a ceasefire because it would have involved negotiations, first about peace lines, peacekeepers and so forth, and then about fundamental political differences. And all this would have subverted the possibility of the kind of regime change that interested the Western powers. The sight of representatives of the rebellion sitting down to talks with representatives of Gaddafi’s regime, Libyans talking to Libyans, would have called the demonisation of Gaddafi into question. The moment he became once more someone people talked to and negotiated with, he would in effect have been rehabilitated. And that would have ruled out violent – revolutionary? – regime change and so denied the Western powers their chance of a major intervention in North Africa’s Spring, and the whole interventionist scheme would have flopped. The logic of the demonisation of Gaddafi ... meant that Gaddafi was banished for ever from the realm of international political discourse, never to be negotiated with, not even about the surrender of Tripoli when in August he offered to talk terms to spare the city further destruction, an offer once more dismissed with contempt. And this logic was preserved from start to finish, as the death toll of civilians in Tripoli and above all Sirte proves. The mission was always regime change, a truth obscured by the hullabaloo over the supposedly imminent massacre at Benghazi.

    Here Roberts gets to the crux of the matter: the lie that launched the wider war.

    CONTINUE . . .

    And the beat goes on . . . like nuthin happened.
     
  2. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    Bumperdoodle...
     
  3. matt wade

    matt wade Well-Known Member

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    You notice how you have to keep bumping the threads you create? There's a lesson for you in there somewhere, but you might not figure it out amidst all those conspiracy theories.
     
  4. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    Another war based on lies.

    Quite common now. So common in fact that nobody even blinks anymore.

    Not even the "former" antiwar lefties.

    Just another day in the empire.
     
  5. matt wade

    matt wade Well-Known Member

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    :sleeping_2:
     
  6. poncho

    poncho Well-Known Member

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    And the beat goes on . . .
     
  7. plain_n_simple

    plain_n_simple Active Member

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    "Libya: The Lies That Launched Another War"

    When I first saw the title, I thought somehow Bush was in power again lol.
     
  8. mandym

    mandym New Member

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    It is very, very dishonest to suggest that Bush lied about any of that. It is extreme far left propaganda that promotes such myths.
     
  9. plain_n_simple

    plain_n_simple Active Member

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    It is extreme far right propaganda that promotes the myth that he did not lie.
     
  10. mandym

    mandym New Member

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    shame on you.
     
  11. plain_n_simple

    plain_n_simple Active Member

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  12. NiteShift

    NiteShift New Member

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    It is a far-left fable that he did.

    Do we need to list Democratic statements on Saddam's WMD again? There are dozens.
     
  13. mandym

    mandym New Member

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    Oh no please let's not mess up a perfectly good thread with something like facts.
     
  14. NiteShift

    NiteShift New Member

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    Yes I see your point.
     
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