The Illegal War in Libya

I wrote this as a forum post in support of the article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/02/nato-gaddafi-libya-air-strikes?commentpage=last#end-of-comments

because some of the posts seemed to show such a naivete that it was frightening.

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Bravo on all counts.

Accurate on all counts. I have trouble believing that thinking readers understand otherwise, and I have to put down crazy comments like:

Make no mistake, Nato's strategy violates international law, shows callous disregard for the innocent, and prosecutes a war approved by no international body,

--> Wrong on all three counts.

to astroturfing (that is: the 'Wrong...' comment). Especially as the poster gives no further elaboration on what anyone can clearly see is a gross, illegal, but entirely expected, overstepping of the original mandate.

Otherwise, some of the 'enlightened' posters surely would have to question why we're expending so much energy on Libya when other, much worse regimes, are not being addressed (Saudia Arabia, as mentioned in the article, is essentially the king pin of all terrorism, but also our greatest financial supporter).

And, yes, such 'enlightened' posters would have to conclude that, once again, money and oil are doing the talking. Libya has one of the largest oil reserves in Africa. That and its proximity to Europe make it an ideal country in which to install a puppet government.

Even if such 'enlightened' posters ignored the black gold issue, they would have to question the ethics of appointing ourselves (along with US) as global policeman. After all, no one else wanted us to have the job. No one begged us to invade them and most countries spend their time either laughing at or loathing us. Even more worrying is who polices the policemen?

We run around the world professing to help downtrodden people in areas that suit our economy. But think. If Britain or the US had a civil war (and mark my words, it's not too far off) do you really think we would want someone like China or Russian to come in and 'help' us?

I can't help but think that the majority of 'enlightened' posters would answer a resounding 'no'. To which I must conclude that they are hypocrits. If we don't want to be policed, what gives us the right to police?

And now, as the western world rejoices at the 'death' of Bin Laden (buried at sea?! come on, you can do better than that U.S.) we are supposed to conveniently forget that we were complicit in an invasion that killed an estimated 30 times more civilians in Iraq than the 9/11 attack (not officially, of course, since allied forces conveniently decided not to keep count). Our leaders are as big criminals as any despotic regimes we're currently attacking. Yet none will ever come to justice, since justice seems to be a concept only available to the west.