SUNDAY, 20 MARCH 2011 09:51 ADNAN KHAN
The UN Security Council has backed a resolution on Libya that supports a no-fly zone and "all necessary measures" to protect civilians. After days of bickering over differences Western allies have, with the absence of China and Russia, managed to pass a resolution that in theory imposes a no fly zone, and allows the West to carry out military strikes under the justification or more likely guise of protecting civilians.
After much discussion, the Americans have now not only backed the British and French resolution on Libya but beefed it up. All of this has taken place as the forces fighting Colonel Gaddafi have been losing their strongholds which were gained when many of Gaddafi's forces defected. In observing the last two weeks and the current UN resolution we make the following points:
1. Western leaders can not be trusted. The West has a long history of pursuing its colonial interests under the guise of humanitarian intervention, liberal interventionism, human rights and protecting people from their rulers. Intervention in Sierra Leon, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan led to prolonged wars with the deaths of numerous civilians at the hands of the West - who were there in an apparent peace mission.
2. Western talk of intervention in Libya comes when Europe armed Gaddafi and stood by as he killed all those who opposed him. Western complicity with brutal dictators is not an exception but the norm. The US armed both Iraq and Iran when they went to war in the 1980's, the West supported the overthrow of Ben Ali and Mubarak, but freelanced over the fact that they armed them and had cordial relations with them.
3. The imposition of no fly zones is an ominous sign, as this was the same pretext used against Iraq in order to weaken it paving the way for military action. Whilst the West has been clearly exposed in its colonial adventure in Iraq, it is peddling the same justification to intervene in another Muslim country. US intervention in World War II led it to maintain bases to this day in both Japan and Germany 60 years later.
4. In the same week the West constructed a UN resolution against Libya, Saudi Arabia sent its army into Bahrain. Libya shares an artificial border with the most powerful Arab nation, with the region's largest army in Egypt. Intervention by Muslim armies would bring a swift end to Gaddafi.
5. Whilst the West has called for joint operations with Arab countries in the region, it is merely to bring international legitimacy to this new colonial venture. The fact is Egypt can single handily remove Gaddafi and bring an end to this massacre in Libya. Egypt shares a border with Libya and has a fleet of 839 fighter aircraft, with total ground troops of 1.3 million. The Muslim world does not need any more foreign intervention whatever the justification. The intervention of Muslim armies is what is necessary to end the wanton killing by Gaddafi and his spent regime.
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