(557 Obama-dumping days until 2012 election-Hugh's Obama's Scandals List)
The corporate-media-beloved and ever-present neolib and neocon war-hawk gamesters are tasting blood and lusting to “FINISH THE JOB” in Libya, a job that on the surface was supposed to be humanitarian in nature, to SAVE CIVILIANS. But, really folks, who doesn’t know the faux-humanitarian intervention “NO FLY ZONE” R2P was in reality just the first step on the American and cronies' slippery slope of high-handed non-humanitarian regime change and aggressive occupation for control of oil, other resources, finances and a punishment of uppity Libyan nationalistic and African-centric activities.
After two surreally grim and failing -- FAILING -- wars in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military, political and media architects and cheerleaders of these failures are still around to jump up and down heatedly and rue the word “STALEMATE” over the “No Fly Zone” result and INSIST ON STEAMROLLING DOWN THE SAME IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN DOOMING GARDEN PATH.
After some cynical lip service to the concept of an “Arab Spring” and a myopic detachment from whom they are actually supporting right now and what questionable racist crimes are being perpetrated in the wake of the “Arab Spring” by the troubling coalition of US- and NATO- supported rebels, the powers that declare war and who have done a mighty job of destroying so much and alienating the Arab world for so long, are about to RE-embrace SHOCK AND AWE, as if I suppose there were any other option for these well-heeled sociopaths, who won’t shed a drop of blood or lose a second of sleep themselves over the dire results that will be unleashed once again now and down the corridors of time for all of us.
The only tool in America’s foreign policy arsenal is a HAMMER. Libya, another nail.
HELLO???????? PLEASE, STOP AND CONSIDER NOT SHOCK & AWE!!!! PLEASE!!!!!
Somebody has to say it. GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!!!!!
Robert Parry in his article “Trying ‘Shock and Awe’ in Libya” asserts that the African Union proposed a ceasefire and a “transition to democracy with Gaddafi on the sidelines.”
SAY WHAT??? I do remember glancing on this for a millisecond what seemed so long ago buried within the alternate media. The idea was quickly rejected by the REBELS who apparently knew they had the US and NATO behind them for the FULL MONTY, not the modest R2P fig leaf provided by a pliable UN.
Parry asserts that Gaddafi’s “embattled regime” actually agreed to those terms. He would step to the side. Parry asserts that those terms were “spurned by the anti-Gaddafi rebels” and don’t “even rate a mention when the ‘options’ are listed in the Big Media.”
REMEMBER WHEN AFGHANISTAN OFFERED TO HAND OVER BIN LADEN IF THE US WOULD PROVIDE PROOF OF HIS 9/11 CRIME. TO KEEP IT AN INTERNATIONAL POLICE ACTION, NOT TURN IT INTO A MILITARY ONE? BUSH PRETTY MUCH SAID “F*CK YOU” AND LAUNCHED A WAR!!!!
So, has the “F*ck You” moment happened in Libya and FULL OUT WAR THE AMERICAN DOCTRINE? Or is there just not a “pause and consider peace button” existing any more in the Washington halls of power?
It would seem not. And yet I write this thinking I can’t be the only one in America begging for peace? Someone else with some clout out there? They can’t all be sociopaths, can they? People with power in America? Anyone considering any peace options? Obama’s Cairo speech. What a bunch of bullshit that apparently was he was serving up?
What is their point of alienating all of the Middle East? Except Israel, of course. Is that what the US must do NOT to alienate Israel? Pretty stunning, border-line disordered contract if that is true.
Obama has already nailed the Nobel Peace Prize. I guess for ego’s sake, why would he possibly explore or even recognize that SHOCK & AWE would destroy a country, or one more "domino" country. Cause an incredible degree of gratuitous deaths a/k/a "collateral damage" in desensitized military-speak, and displacement of traumatized and devastated surviving citizens, as well as destroy profound, life-enhancing infrastructure.
Small likelihood it would seem for peace, since that would be so radical. And the O-man who is addicted to the “center” can’t move toward peace with all those war hawks screaming at him to up the ante from the right! And there is the 2012 election and American apathy to factor in. The majority of citizens don't seem to have awakened consciences about war, still. They do want that cheap oil, also, don't they?
And the corporate media never could or would frame war in moral terms.
WE’RE TALKING WASHINGTON POWER & CONTROL WAR GAMESMANSHIP, not doing what is best for humanity. WE’RE TALKING NEVER EVER EVER EVER PAY ATTENTION TO PAST GLARING MISTAKES!!!! NEVER ADMIT YOUR COUNTRY’S LEADERSHIP WAS WRONG, IS ACCOUNTABLE, OR SHOULD ATTONE. JUST KEEP UP THE SAME TERRIBLE, DENYING, ARROGANT INERTIA OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.
Here is the moment when a mature American government would pause and put all options on that proverbial table Obama likes to mention so often as well as lie about being truly inclusive. Working with the African Union to help the citizens of Libya attain a healthier way of life in support of the Arab Spring is not on that friggin’ table, clearly.
The appearance of supporting Libyans in the Arab Spring moment was simply a shameless Trojan Horse to commandeer Libyan resources and wealth into Western hands it sure does look like. Anyone argue? An attempt to rein in the "Arab Spring" in fact, by the dirty-dealings Western powers who are destroying democracies at home so why would they promote them in the Middle East?
Louise Hay, famous humanist, once wrote, “The point of power is always in the present moment.” But the warrior-addicted United States can’t grasp that concept. Only seems to be able to slide down those violent, military industrial security complex mandated slippery slopes to slaughter and destruction in defiance of any protested political will and economic security of its own citizenry and the lives of the exploited members of its armed forces.
“SHOCK & AWE” the AMERICAN DOCTRINE. What did the Washington leaders say, recently? That they wanted Gaddafi to feel we were really over there? Sounds like some serious ego-flexing on the part of illegitimately bullying power brokers to me. Does that mean now killing more and more of the civilians, thus flying in the face of the so recently asserted pretense made to enter Libya in the first place? What the hey. Facile and convenient mendacity, played and over now. NEXT, the always popular SHOCK & AWE, using all those expensive deadly and cruel beyond imagination armaments the Western taxpaying citizenries have been paying for for years. And in the US case, some of the worst incinerating destruction can be done by drones with our soldiers sitting back in Virginia or Nevada sipping their Diet-Pepsis as if enjoying a video game.
Here is some of Robert Parry’s alarming take on the apparent US military’s determination to re-play in Libya the “shock and awe” done to Serbia in 1999:
Besides taking a page from Bush’s “shock and awe” playbook, the Smart Talk in Washington also suggests modeling “regime change” in Libya after NATO’s bombing of Serbia in 1999.
Those NATO strikes against the capital of Belgrade inflicted hundreds of civilian deaths, with estimates ranging from about 500 to more than 1,200, including the killing of 16 people working at the Serb TV station.
NATO generals justified their bombing of Serb TV on the premise that “enemy propaganda” is a legitimate target in wartime, even if the station’s personnel were unarmed and defenseless. Since then, the intentional targeting of civilian TV and radio stations has become part of Western military doctrine when trying to overthrow Arab and Third World regimes.
The Serbian model is now being applied to Libya with the blessings of senior military officials who participated in that campaign. For instance, Gen. John P. Jumper, who commanded U.S. Air Force units over Serbia, told the New York Times that bombing high-profile institutional sites in Belgrade proved more effective than the destruction of Serbian tanks and other military targets.
“It was when we went in and began to disturb important and symbolic sites in Belgrade and began to bring to a halt the middle-class life in Belgrade, that [Serbian President Slobodan] Milosevic’s own people began to turn on him,” Jumper said.
Now, Jumper said a similar approach is being pursued in Libya. This week, NATO planes bombed Libya’s capital of Tripoli briefly knocking Libyan TV off the air and blasting Gaddafi’s personal residence (although NATO insisted that the raid wasn’t an assassination attempt, wink-wink).
In other words, the anti-Serb air campaign, which was estimated to kill four Serb civilians for every Serb soldier slain, is now becoming the model for NATO's military strategy in Libya.
Four civilians for every Serb soldier killed. Sounds profoundly anti-R2P, does it not? The UN mandate totally defied.
Parry asserts that The Washington Post and The New York Times are ignoring this contradiction and banging the drums with pro-war propaganda. Criticizing Obama for being too tentative.
Parry’s ominous conclusion:
Looking across the landscape of the U.S. news media, it is hard to find any major voice suggesting peace negotiations with Gaddafi’s government or even advocating that the sincerity of its acceptance of the African Union’s plan for a cease-fire and democratic reforms should be put to the test.
Instead, virtually all the talking heads are armchair warriors, with the neoconservative editors of the Washington Post and the New York Times again leading the way by condemning Obama’s decision to minimize U.S. military participation.
[snip]
Yet, if NATO’s real goal is to minimize civilian casualties, Western countries might want to think twice about taking sides in what is shaping up as an ugly tribal war. They might even give peace a chance, rather than replay the civilian bombings in Belgrade or the “shock and awe” over Iraq.[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
If things weren't bad enough, it now comes out that Gaddafi has hired 500 mercenaries from the EU (they are absolutely flocking to Libya to fight NATO) - and the war has expanded into Tunisia.
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