So the disasters of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars are not enough for America.
And calling out for the assassination of a legitimate sovereign head of a country and encouraging civil war bloodbaths from our senior US Senators has gotten as American as apple pie! The blood-letting mood begun earlier by a craven corporate media and a mendacious administration demonizing Gaddafi and myopically generalizing and romanticizing the strange and troubling rebellion coalition challenging him. Once again in American media, profound truth black outs, this time of barbaric racist violence against non-Libyan Africans wrongly accused of being mercenaries.
What does the Military Industrial Security Complex care, ultimately? They -- pro or anti-Gaddafi Libyans and millions more ultimately in Africa -- will all be toast eventually. Desperate and traumatized, those who manage to live from “Obama’s days not weeks humanitarian intervention" (HAH!) and the African bloodbaths to come. All bowed to the will of the Western corporatism colonization. Control of Africa, and all its juicy resources. Col. Gaddafi is an obstacle to that, so anything goes in oil, money and war.
Just amazing how the Stockholm-syndromed US citizenry is so terribly passive about all this as the same old, proven wrong how many times, Congressional blowhards blow hard yet again.
Put the US citizens on an insane, austerity diet (just like Israel put Palestine on) after giving away trillions to corporate economic terrorists and military terrorists (the $700+ billion flooding out this year to US militarization). Not to mention, the bipartisan Congressional "death panel" has doomed much of America to poverty and possible uninsured death and suffering so the corporate vendors can get their surreally gigantic bonus money and CEO incomes. But what the hey ... They are the ones who funnel money to our well-heeled heels in Washington.
More quagmires to wade into. And on the side of what the military admits includes “flickers” of al Qaeda, but what the hey, anything for Western hegemony. Hypocritically horrifying bedfellows. No biggie. Fighting now WITH al Qaeda for Western hegemony? You would think this might get some media air time. More innocent global brethren to destroy and displace. Imperial corporate-friendly militarism. Lust for oil, money, power. The American Way is really the path of super-powered terrorism.
Might for right? C’mon. The American “Camelot” illusion is long dead. Obama doesn’t even care to seriously pretend about international morality and responsibility. MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!!!! Gangsta, video war game rules.
Helping the so-called “Arab Spring”? Bullshit. Remember the domino-theory about Communism decades ago? The US and NATO are playing diabolical global dominos! They don’t give a damn about the hearts and minds and remote welfare of their targeted domino victims. Why, they welcome civil war bloodbaths. Quickens the collapse so they can steamroll in and take over the resources and set up their puppet regimes. The sanctity of human life? An idea only useful for the initial con of launching wars. Lucy and the football on a maliciously massive scale.
Willing to sacrifice their own cannon fodder troops for those ends, in fact. Despite the “we love the troops” jingoistic Orwellian rhetoric. The people faux-passionately standing up for the troops have been dooming human beings for years and years on ALL sides. Yeah, let’s send our patriotic and betrayed naive children on Russian roulette multiple deployments until their numbers are up. For the surviving, do you think the powers that be give a serious shit about their psychological and physical woundings or what the ultimate industrial strength PTSD will do to their families? Naw. Everyone has to suck it up and sacrifice for the austerity program now in America, that is enabling senseless and malicious warring. We are a warrior and war criminal nation. Psychopathic.
I wanted to write a scathing blog about the three war-mongering clowns, Graham, McCain, Lieberman, who were kissing up to Gaddafi a year ago in gratitude for an arms-purchase, and are now foaming at the mouth to bomb the shit out of Libya and Gaddafi for oil, economic bankster terrorism, and ah hell, just because -- and as far as these three Gucci-loafered chicken hawks are concerned, the world is a video game and they need to WIN WIN WIN!!!! USA, USA, USA!!!!! (as well as ISRAEL ISRAEL ISRAEL!!!) KILL KILL KILL, LIE, LIE, LIE, WIN, WIN, WIN!!!
These three craven clowns are offered the microphone to war monger by a craven American media to entertain and seduce a nation of amoral ostriches, the vast majority, apparently.
Here is part of an excellent wrap-up by James Cogan of the three amigos' recent war-mongering, thanks to CNN allowing their Libyan War drumbeat to be escalated:
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN: “Right now there’s just not enough momentum by the rebels... So my recommendation to NATO and the administration is to cut the head of the snake off. Go to Tripoli, start bombing Gaddafi’s inner circle, their compounds, their military headquarters.”
Graham repeated the widespread demand in the US establishment for the Obama administration to deploy AC-130 gunships for operations against the pro-Gaddafi Libyan forces. AC-130s are armed with a rapid-fire, five-barrel 25mm Gatling gun, a 40mm cannon, and a 105mm howitzer. They are designed to blanket an area with explosions and bullets and devastate vehicles and personnel?and any civilians who happen to be caught up in the fire. They have been used with murderous effect in Afghanistan and Iraq, including documented massacres of civilians.
Graham dismissed CNN host Candy Crowley’s observation that attacks on targets in heavily-populated areas of Tripoli were not covered by the UN resolution that provides a legal fig leaf for the war. “The goal is to get rid of Gaddafi,” he said. “The people around Gaddafi need to wake up every day wondering ‘will this be my last?’ The military commanders supporting Gaddafi should be pounded. So I would not let the UN mandate stop what is the right thing to do.”
Republican Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain, who visited Benghazi last Friday to meet with members of the opposition Transitional National Council, called for the immediate US recognition of the rebel body so that money and armaments could be sent. McCain declared that the former Gaddafi ministers, CIA-linked figures and Islamists who are known to be in the council “represent the legitimate aspirations of the Libyan people.”
As well as demanding stepped-up efforts to train and arm the anti-Gaddafi forces to wage their civil war, McCain insisted that US air power such as AC-130s and Apache gunships be deployed in “a heavier way.”
In response to Graham’s call for assassination, McCain expressed general agreement with targeting the Libyan leader, but declared US strategy had to be based on “winning the battle on the ground” not on “a chance of taking him out with a lucky air strike.”
Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman—the one-time vice presidential candidate of the Democratic Party—joined the campaign for escalation and echoed Graham’s call to assassinate Gaddafi. NATO, he declared, “has got to start thinking about whether they want to more directly target Gaddafi and his family.” Lieberman cynically declared that the UN resolution justified a policy of assassination on the grounds it would “protect the civilian population.”
The blatant advocacy of war crimes to remove Gaddafi from power stems inexorably from the criminal motives of the war itself. From the beginning, it was driven by the neo-colonial ambitions of France, Britain and the US to gain domination over Libya’s lucrative oil resources at the expense of rivals such as China and Russia. Five weeks after the bombing began and with no end in sight, the mounting frustration in Washington is fuelling calls to drown all resistance in blood.
One motivation is the impact on world oil prices of the virtual shutdown of Libya’s oil exports. Fighting and bombing around major oil and gas facilities have also caused damage to infrastructure. Fields held by the Benghazi rebels are predicted to be out of production for the next four weeks, forcing them to rely on donations of fuel from Qatar.
The Obama administration and its NATO allies have already moved to significantly escalate the assault on Libya. Britain, France and Italy have begun dispatching “trainers” to Benghazi to assist the opposition forces?a first step toward the eventual deployment of ground forces.
On Saturday, the first attack on Libyan government troops was carried out by an unmanned US Predator drone, which President Obama ordered deployed last week. A vehicle-mounted rocket launcher in Misrata was reportedly destroyed by a Hellfire missile. At least two Predators will be kept flying over Libya 24 hours a day.
The Russians are speaking more truth about the Libyan fiasco, of course, than our own drone-addicted administration. They recognize that the three amoral amigos leading the charge of full throttle warfare are playing with FIRE. A FIRE ENOUGH TO LAUNCH A FULL SCALE WAR IN AFRICA!! From Moscow’s Itar-Tass 4/21/11:
The situation in Libya is stalled. The no fly zone operation has failed, and an operation on the ground, if it begins, will trigger a large African war, Russian presidential representative for African affairs, chairman of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee, Mikhail Margelov, said on Thursday.
“That this is a stalemate situation is seen in the fact that without a ground operation attempts to oust Gaddafi have failed, and resolution 1973 of the UN Security Council the coalition has already interpreted very loosely does not permit interference by infantry or paratroops,” Margelov told Itar-Tass. “The United States, France and Britain think that bombs alone are not enough to fulfill the part of the resolution that concerns the protection of civilian population. In their opinion, as long as there is Gaddafi, there will be a risk to the lives of civilians.”
However, if a ground operation begins, then, according to Margelov, "a war of this scale will not be kept within Libya."
"The area of ··the Sahel is already unstable, and the countries of that zone – Mali and Niger – are getting arms from the rebels in the theater of military operations in Libya for factions of al-Qaeda,” said the special envoy. This, he warns, "poses a threat to Algeria and Morocco, where the opposition continues to protest and demonstrate. "
In addition, the complexity of the situation in Libya, according to Margelov, stems from the fact that "it is still not clear with whom one can negotiate a political settlement, because the rebels are a very ill-matched: there are regional tribes, Libyan Berbers, some defectors from the ruling regime and al-Qaeda militants.”
"At the same time,” Margelov added, "the insurgents and the coalition do not want any talks with Gaddafi."
The complexity of the situation in Libya ... but never complex to American jingoist big-mouthed politicans and a media with the conscience of a gnat and an administration that is a corporate/military shill. A country whose only geo-political tool is tragically a HAMMER!!!!
David Rothscum brings in some enlightening truths about Libya, blacked out of course by the Western corporate media. His article is entitled "Libya Burns As The World Cheers".
How was Libya doing under the rule of Gadaffi? How bad did the people have it? Were they oppressed as we now commonly accept as fact? Let us look at the facts for a moment.
Before the chaos erupted, Libya had a lower incarceration rate than the Czech republic. It ranked 61st. Libya had the lowest infant mortality rate of all of Africa. Libya had the highest life expectancy of all of Africa. Less than 5% of the population was undernourished. In response to the rising food prices around the world, the government of Libya abolished ALL taxes on food.
People in Libya were rich. Libya had the highest gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita of all of Africa. The government took care to ensure that everyone in the country shared in the wealth. Libya had the highest Human Development Index of any country on the continent. The wealth was distributed equally. In Libya, a lower percentage of people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.
How does Libya get so rich? The answer is oil. The country has a lot of oil, and does not allow foreign corporations to steal the resources while the population starves, unlike countries like Nigeria, a country that is basically run by Shell.
Like any country, Libya suffers from a government with corrupt bureaucrats that try to gain a bigger portion of the pie at the cost of everyone else. In response to this, Kadaffi called for the oil revenue to be distributed directly to the people, because in his opinion, the government was failing the people. However, unlike the article claims, Kadaffi is not the president of Libya. In fact he holds no official position in the government. This is the big mistake that people make. They claim that Kadaffi rules over Libya when in fact he doesn't, his position is more or less ceremonial. He should be compared to a founding father.
The true leader of Libya is an indirectly elected prime-minister. The current prime-minister is Baghdadi Mahmudi. Calling Khadaffi the leader of Libya is comparable to calling Akihito the leader of Japan. Contrary to what your media is sketching, opinions in Libya vary. Some people support Gadaffi but want Mahmudi out. Others want both out. Many just want to live their life in peace. However, effort is taken to sketch the appearance of a popular revolt against the supposed leader of Libya, Gadaffi, when in fact he is just the architect of Libya's current political system, a mixture of pan-Arabism, socialism, and Islamic government.
[snip]
Are the protesters in Libya comparable to the protesters in Egypt and Tunisia? Not at all. The governments reaction is more violent, and obviously excessive violence is being used. However let us look for a moment at the actions of the protesters. The building of the the general people's congress, the parliament of Libya, was put on fire by angry protestors. This is comparable to protesters putting the United States Capitol on fire. Do you think that for even a moment the US government would sit idly by as protesters put the US capitol on fire?
The riots erupting now are not secular youth desiring change, or anything like we saw in Egypt and Tunisia. A group calling itself "Islamic Emirate of Barka", the former name of the North-Western part of Libya, has taken numerous hostages, and killed two policemen. This is not a recent development. On Friday, the 18th of February, the group stole 70 military vehicles after attacking a port and killing four soldiers. Unfortunately, a military colonel has joined the group and provided them with further weapons. The uprising started in the eastern city of Benghazi. The Italian foreign minister has raised his fears of an Islamic Emirate of Benghazi declaring itself independent.
So where does this sudden uprising come from? The answer is that the same groups the US has been funding for decades are now taking their chance to gain control over the nation. A group recently arrested in Libya consisted of dozens of foreign nationals that were involved in numerous acts of looting and sabotage. The Libyan government could not rule out links to Israel.
Great Britain funded an Al Qaeda cell in Libya, in an attempt to assassinate Gadaffi. The main opposition group in Libya now is the National Front for the Salvation of Libya. This opposition group is being funded by Saudi Arabia, the CIA, and French Intelligence. This group unified itself with other opposition groups, to become the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition. It was this organization that called for the "Day of Rage" that plunged Libya into chaos on February 17 of this year.
It did this in Benghazi, a conservative city that has always been opposed to Gadaffi's rule. It should be noted that the National Front for the Salvation of Libya is well armed. In 1996 the group tried to unleash a revolution in the eastern part of Libya before. It used the Libyan National Army, the armed division of the NFSL to begin this failed uprising.
Why is the United States so opposed to Gadaffi? He is the main threat to US hegemony in Africa, because he attempts to unite the continent against the United States. This concept is called the United States of Africa. In fact, Gadaffi holds all sorts of ideas that are contrary to US interests. The man blames the United States government for the creation of HIV. He claims that Israel is behind the assasination of Martin Luther King and president John. F. Kennedy. He says that the 9/11 hijackers were trained in the US. He also urged Libyans to donate blood to Americans after 9/11. Khadaffi is also the last of a generation of moderate socialist pan-Arab revolutionaries that is still in power, after Nasser and Hussein have been eliminated, and Syria has aligned itself with Iran.
The United States and Israel however have no interest in a strong Arab world. In fact it seems that elementary to the plan is bringing Libya to its knees through chaos and anarchy. In late 2010, the United Kingdom was still propping up the Libyan government through lucrative arms sales. Nothing is a better guarantee to destroy Libya than a bloody civil war. The tribal system that is still strong in Libya is useful to exploit to generate such a war since Libya has historically been divided into various tribal groups.
This is also why the Libyan government responds by importing mercenaries. Tribal allegiances go before allegiance to the government, especially in Benghazi, and thus the central government has no control over the eastern part of the country anymore. The alternative to mercenaries is a conflict between the various ethnic groups. Gadaffi has tried for 41 years to make the country more homogeneous, but opposition groups funded by outside forced will take little more than a few days to put the country back into the 19th century, before the region was conquered and unified by Europeans. The violence is indeed excessive, but everyone seems to forget that the situation is not the same as in Tunis and Egypt. Tribal ties play a far greater role, and thus the conflict will unfortunately be bloodier.
Please remember at all times that the violent Libyan civil war unfolding now is not comparable to the revolutions seen in Tunisia and Egypt. Both of these revolutions involved peaceful protesters suffering from poverty, in opposition to their corrupt governments. The chaos in Libyan consists of a mixture of tribal conflicts, conflict over oil revenue (since most oil is in the east of the country), radical islamists opposed to Gadaffi's system of government, and outside destabilization by Western funded exile groups.
Gadaffi took control in a bloodless coup from a sick monarch away for medical treatment 41 years ago. His ideology is based on unification and he attempted to peacefully merge his country with Egypt and Syria. It would take a miracle for the violence unfolding now to lead to a single stable democratic government in Libya, with full control over the entire country. The country is more than twice the size of Pakistan, but with 6 million inhabitants. Endless deserts divide many of the cities in the nation. If anything we should ask ourselves how many more nations will be shattered into pieces in the coming months, as the world cheers.
Good question, Mr. Rothscum: “How many more nations will be shattered into pieces in the coming months, as the world cheers?”
Finally as concerns Libya and targets of so much of western militarization all bloody roads seem to lead to international private banking cartel "interests." From tesfanews:
AFRICAN MONETARY FUND, AFRICAN CENTRAL BANK, AFRICAN INVESTMENT BANK
The US$30 billion frozen by Mr Obama belong to the Libyan Central Bank and had been earmarked as the Libyan contribution to three key projects which would add the finishing touches to the African federation – the African Investment Bank in Syrte, Libya, the establishment in 2011 of the African Monetary Fund to be based in Yaounde with a US$42 billion capital fund and the Abuja-based African Central Bank in Nigeria which when it starts printing African money will ring the death knell for the CFA franc through which Paris has been able to maintain its hold on some African countries for the last fifty years. It is easy to understand the French wrath against Gaddafi.
The African Monetary Fund is expected to totally supplant the African activities of the International Monetary Fund which, with only US$25 billion, was able to bring an entire continent to its knees and make it swallow questionable privatisation like forcing African countries to move from public to private monopolies.
No surprise then that on 16-17December 2010, the Africans unanimously rejected attempts by Western countries to join the African Monetary Fund, saying it was open only to African nations.
It is increasingly obvious that after Libya, the western coalition will go after Algeria, because apart from its huge energy resources, the country has cash reserves of around €150 billion. This is what lures the countries that are bombing Libya and they all have one thing in common – they are practically bankrupt. The USA alone, has a staggering debt of $US14,000 billion, France, Great Britain and Italy each have a US$2,000 billion public deficit compared to less than US$400 billion in public debt for 46 African countries combined.
Inciting spurious wars in Africa in the hope that this will revitalise their economies which are sinking ever more into the doldrums will ultimately hasten the western decline which actually began in 1884 during the notorious Berlin Conference. As the American economist Adam Smith predicted in 1865 when he publicly backed Abraham Lincoln for the abolition of slavery, ‘the economy of any country which relies on the slavery of blacks is destined to descend into hell the day those countries awaken’.
Ferociously and cruelly ironic that a Black Trojan Horse for oligarchs president is now launching this bloodbath in Africa, conflating his administration's and his Western cronies' avaricious, violent exploitation/colonization with the quest of exploited, struggling and courageous Arab/African citizens for real political and economic democracy.
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
Awesome post. Pretty well sums up the insanity of US foreign policy.
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