print“NATO is deprived of all morals and all civilisation.” So said the Libyan government spokesperson Moussa Ibrahim, with whom I wholeheartedly agree. Two weeks ago the US and allies killed Col Gaddafi’s son and a couple of his grandchildren. Today we were licking our chops for more blood. Via BBC:
Nato air strikes have again hit the compound of Col Muammar Gaddafi, hours after Libyan state TV showed footage purportedly of the leader in Tripoli.
Libyan government officials said the attack in the early hours of Thursday killed three people, although this cannot be independently verified.
Correspondents said three rockets hit the base and caused extensive damage.
A video of Col Gaddafi aired Wednesday was the leader’s first appearance since his son was killed two weeks ago. Smoke rose from the Gaddafi compound, Bab al-Azaziya, and ambulances raced through the city as the last missile struck early on Thursday, reports said.
UPDATE (May 13): To “Compassionate Fascist”: There is nothing like asserting that the massacre that never happened would have happened had you not killed-off the people whom you claim were about to kill had you not killed them.
Is this not what is called a negative proof? RationalWiki explains: “A logical fallacy which takes the structure of:
X is true because there is no proof that X is false.
“If the only evidence for something’s existence is a lack of evidence for it not existing, then the default position is one of skepticism and not credulity. This type of negative proof is common in proofs of God’s existence or in pseudosciences where it is used to attempt to shift the burden of proof onto the skeptic rather than the proponent of the idea. The burden of proof is on the individual proposing existence, not the one questioning existence.”
I have contempt for Gaddafi BUT ….
NATO is a vigilante posse of statist dictators who consider themselves personally entitled to indebt their citizens and use armies at their own whim. Assassinations, bombings, “collateral damage”, bribes, and a micromanagerial foreign policy are the byproducts.
More nausea-inducing passages from the BBC link:
“A delegation from the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC), including senior leader Mahmoud Gibril, will meet National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and members of the US Congress.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday invited the TNC to set up an office in Britain.
After meeting TNC leaders in London, Mr Cameron praised the group and described them as “Britain’s primary partner” in Libya.
At a news conference, rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil reiterated calls for the UK to provide them with weapons.
‘We need light weapons, which is not equivalent to Gaddafi’s weaponry, but perhaps with courage, which Libyan people have, there may be some kind of balance’”
e.g. the US and the UK are setting up their new puppet (Diem, Karzai, Jalil) who may turn out to later fink out on “us” Bin-Laden style.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/24198
After Libya Luxemberg is next.
“who may turn out to later fink out on “us”” There is no “may”. If honest, he has to go with what is right and we all know that the US foreign policy is such that he will have to bail on us in order to protect his people. If he is a crook, then it’s only ‘birds of a feather’ and natural for him to fink. If he doesn’t follow either course, the Libyans will get burned anyway. There aren’t any winners in this game; anymore than in Tunisia and Egypt.
Tiresome nihilism. Zero’s last minute intervention prevented Khaddafi from massacring half the population of Benghazi; and, though its gone down the collective memory hole, this is the same K. who murdered hundreds of other peoples’ children when he ordered up the Lockerbie bomb. Frustrating, isn’t it? First Zero aces Khaddafi, then takes out Bin Laden as well. Lucky for us the election is still a long way off.
Ilana – AMEN to your response to Compassionate Fascist. Keep in mind the 4 million lives lost (plus wounded, post-traumatic stress disorders, widowed/orphaned, crops ruined…) when America tried to prevent the North Vietnamese communists from killing 200,000 South Vietnamese. We have no idea how this Libyan mess that we stirred up will now end but (as in Vietnam), the cure might easily be worse than the disease.
Even if Gadhafi actually intended to massacre Benghazi (he only threatened “no mercy” after the NATO bombing began), how would this be different than the Saudis massacring Bahreini demonstrators, or the Syrians massacring theirs? And how is any of this U.S. business (apart from Washington having organized the Syrian and Libyan rebellions, but not the Bahraini one)?
Latest score: Zero, 2. Zionist neocons: 0.
Also, Ilana mis-spelled “Fascist”.
The West would be condemned no matter what. We cannot win.
Ilana, I am reading R W Johnson’s ‘South Africa’s Brave New World’. It is so depressing that I am frightened to read ‘Into the cannibal’s pot’. But I will, even if I have to order it from America.