Libya--To Invade or not to Invade: that is the Question

Why is the US so concerned with the plight of the Libyans when we recently killed over one million innocent Iraqis?

Image of Libya courtesy: flickr.com

(JAMESTOWN, R.I.) - While the British have been caught red handed with a small contingent of military sneaking into Libya, the US continues to build up and get prepared for a military intervention as well.

One has to wonder why? The administration would argue that military intervention might be needed to protect the people of Libya; despite the rebels having made it abundantly clear on many recent occasions they do not want, or need outside intervention.

Mainstream media laments for the people of Libya, but do they really care? There apparently have been several hundred Libyans killed by Qaddafi forces and media justifiably weeps.

Yet in 2009 when Israel began a massive bombing campaign of Gaza slaughtering innocents who were imprisoned in walled city with no possible escape, the slaughter went on for days, and not a word of protest, lament, or sorrow, for the victims of Gaza from either mainstream media or the administration.

The US watched silently while American supersonic bombers killed over 1,400 innocent people who were trapped, and not a word about a no-fly zone. One third of the dead were children. The most sophisticated weapons in the world, including rockets, missiles, tanks, white phosphorus, against defenseless Gazans with no air force, army, navy, or weapons to defend themselves from the onslaught.

Israel's U.S.-backed war crimes against the civilians of Gaza included the use of white phosphorous and depleted uranium (DU) that are expressly forbidden under intl. law.

It was one of the biggest mismatches in military history, and all the while the US remained silent. During the Israeli onslaught, schools, (including a UN school resulting in 46 children dead) hospitals, police stations, and churches were among the 22,000 buildings that were destroyed, all of which are illegal targets, and therefore war crimes.

Hypocritically the US is now insisting the pro Qaddafi forces guilty of atrocities should be held accountable, yet remained silent and therefore complicit in one of the most one-sided and cold blooded military assaults ever.

Many argue Israel has the fifth strongest military force in the world, much of which is paid for by US taxpayers without their knowledge, while Gaza has no military at all and no place to hide from the vicious assault.

Israel lost its moral compass and American Jews must subject themselves to a conscience examination, for they now stand in opposition to all the traditional values of the Jewish people. Their silence makes them complicit.

So no outrage, no protest, no sanctions, no UN actions against Israel, while all of the above are being applied to Libya.

Sometimes a picture is worth thousands...

Why?

Could the willingness to use force in Libya have anything to do with oil? Could it be that Libya has the largest know proven oil reserves on the African continent?

Could it be that BP negotiated a $900 million dollar contract with Libya in 2008, which would be endangered if Qaddafi falls? Could it be that ExxonMobil has a 97 million dollar contract, and Shell, France’s oil company TOT, and Norway’s company Statoil, all have contracts with Libya that very well could be at risk when Qaddafi falls from power?

When the fall occurs there will be a rush by corporations and countries to secure control of Libya’s 1.6 million barrels of oil exported daily, and there will also be a rush to capture its vast natural gas fields.

Could it be the US cares not about Libya’s people, but cares about a military intervention to protect Libya’s oil? Could it be that the US is panicked by the spread of democracy in the Middle East and has chosen Libya to establish a military base, from which we could police these emerging democracies?

Yousef is one of thousands of Iraqi men forced out of the military then allowed into the Sons of Iraq, only to see U.S. funding for the program disappear. '08 Salem-News.com photo by Tim King

Why is the US so concerned with the plight of the Libyans when we recently killed over one million innocent Iraqis, and cared less about helping the 4 million refugees that the Iraq war created?

Why do we not seem to feel their pain? Why didn’t we feel the pain when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked by Lesley Stahl, in the infamous 60 Minutes question: "We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?"

Albright casually answered: “we think the price is worth it”.

Because of the blood, deaths, and destruction we brought to Iraq for no reason, some might find it difficult to believe the US is really concerned with the well being of the Libyan people.

In Afghanistan and Pakistan we kill innocents daily with smart bombs, laser guided weapons, and unmanned drones, and just this week killed 9 of 10 Afghan children who were gathering firewood. We did, once again, say we were sorry, as we have done on countless occasions.

On some occasions we have even reimbursed the parents of dead children with amounts of $1,500 for the loss of a child, or the loss of a child’s limb, so truly we must be real sorry.

We have accidentally attacked and killed countless innocents, and have a propensity for attacking weddings with our smart bombs, usually followed by an official denial, and then as the evidence and bodies pile up, an official apology repeated by another attack a short time later.

The first to call for military intervention in Libya were the neocons who brought us Iraq, with John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Paul Wolfowitz, and Elliot Abrams, once again rising to the occasion and leading the charge for militarily intervention in Libya.

This alone is a red light that should cause for great thought.

Many are perplexed at the willingness and eagerness of the administration, and some in Congress, to use military power to intervene in an apparent civil war.

Certainly during our own Civil War we begged other nations not to interfere, so we should be sensitive to the pleas of the rebels who are insisting they do not want or need any intervention.

In light of our militaristic past, the slaughters we have brought to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, our role as accomplice in the Israeli devastation of Gaza and the subsequent and continued starvation implemented by both Israel and the US, and the fact that the US has supported every dictatorship in the Middle East from Morocco to Iraq, provides ample doubt that the US is suddenly concerned with the plight of Libyans. There is another motive.

Salem-News.com Writer Joe Clifford, lives in historic Jamestown, Rhode Island, and has contributed a number of articles relating to foreign policy to newspapers in the Rhode Island area for years.

He graduated from Providence College where he earned an undergraduate and graduate degree. After a lengthy career as a high school teacher he turned to the study of US foreign policy, and then to writing, as a means of expressing an alternative perspective. His reading and research on foreign policy is broad and extensive, especially as the policy relates to the Middle East. His interest in foreign policy was inspired by the American misadventure in Vietnam. You can write to Joe at this address: jc21131@gmail.com