diamond,
*it’s about time the United Nations got its act together, as they did - this time. *

somebody forgot to inform the un about the killing spree in bahrian, abetted by amerikkan weapons n saudi troops, just outside the gate of the us 5 fleet base ?

Meanwhile innocent civilians are butchered in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, by the
American military, ho hum. Hail to the Chief, Nobel Peace Prize winner and
collateral murderer.

another analysis - not mine - cited as worthy of consideration:

http://tinyurl.com/4ozv6ds

The CIA’s Libya Rebels: The Same Terrorists who Killed US, NATO Troops in
Iraq

2007 West Point Study Shows Benghazi-Darnah-Tobruk Area was a World
Leader in Al Qaeda Suicide Bomber Recruitment

Webster G. Tarpley
TARPLEY.net
Washington DC, March 24, 2011

[...]

The most striking finding which emerges from the West Point study is that the
corridor which goes from Benghazi to Tobruk, passing through the city of
Darnah (also transliterated as Derna) them represents one of the greatest
concentrations of jihadi terrorists to be found anywhere in the world, and by
some measures can be regarded as the leading source of suicide bombers
anywhere on the planet. Darnah, with one terrorist fighter sent into Iraq to kill
Americans for every 1,000 to 1,500 persons of population, emerges as suicide
bomber heaven, easily surpassing the closest competitor, which was Riyad,
Saudi Arabia.

[...]

“Iraq was just plain wrong.  So is Libya now that it has obviously gone from “humanitarian” intervention to an attempt at regime change.”

Nonsense. Iraq was a manufactured, colonial oil war: regime change was a by-product not the motive. In Libya, (mostly) young people have risen up to overthrow a brutal dictator because he’s been there for 42 years and they want democracy. Qaddafi could have left but chose to stay and kill his own people. If he gets away with it, every other dictator in the region will think that going on a murderous rampage will keep them in power. The United Nations did not sanction the Iraq war. It was completely illegal. The two events are like chalk and cheese.

The war you should compare this intervention with is the war in Bosnia where civilians were burned alive and crucified on barn doors, and women and children were raped in rape camps, and Sarajevo was under shelling and sniper fire for over a year before America acted in unison with NATO and bombed targets in Belgrade to concentrate Milosevic’s mind on his own murderous folly, after which he was eventually arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, where he died of a heart attack in his cell. After Rwanda and Bosnia and Kosovo it’s about time the United Nations got its act together, as they did - this time.

By highlandspring,
*Qaddafi was never elected, he is a dictator, and the
people are ones doing the fighting.  If we don’t help
them they are as good as dead. *

relax
the libya rebels have heavy weapons, tanks , even jet fighters
the whole *international communities* are on their side
n u should worry ?

if u’re so into helping the *underdog*
how about send some stinger missiles to them
defenceless civilians in afghpak, somalia, etc etc ?
now there’s a good man
http://tinyurl.com/4bkgpbt

RE: ...they are as good as dead.

indeed they are - Iraq is the proof
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3116

Depleted Uranium Radioactive Contamination In Iraq: An Overview
by Prof Souad N. Al-Azzawi
Global Research, August 31, 2006

[...]

Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry has been used against Iraq since the Gulf War
1 in 1991. Estimated (DU) expenditure of 320 - 800 tons were mainly shot on
the withdrawing Iraqi troops from Kuwait to the north of Basrah City.

With the comprehensive sanctions that were imposed on Iraq, the USA & its
allies purposely used these radioactive & toxic weapons to exhaust Iraq’s
strength & population to prepare for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Hundreds of
tons of (DU) expenditure were also used during the invasion of Iraq. This was
done to worsen the radioactive contamination impact.  Additionally, the
occupying forces have forbade any kind of (DU) related exploration programs
or research [2]. They have also covered up and denied DU’s damaging health
effects, and refused to release information on the amounts, types and locations
of these weapons within Iraq. As a consequence, thousands of Iraqi children
and their families are suffering from different low level radiation (LLR) related
diseases such as congenital malformations, malignancies, congenital heart
diseases, chromosomal aberration and multiple malformations.  Women in the
contaminated areas suffered high rates of miscarriages and sterility [3]. 

[...]

Blackspeare:

My pleasure!  And yes, it is always nice to see that, at least once in a while, we agree.  LOL.

Peace.

Maani…

Thanks for the backup——at least this time we agree!!!

these days, wherever western armies go, so goes DU Poisoning - a case could be
made for systematic genocide -

e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=repUEeI0hGk

diamond:

“Would you have preferred them to sanction a genocide, as they did when they stood by and let the Syrian government slaughter 80,000 of their own people during a similar uprising in 1982? Or as they did when they didn’t act in Rwanda and acted almost too late in Bosnia? There would have been regime change in Libya under any scenario because the majority of Libyans want it and have put their lives on the line to achieve it.”

You are mixing apples and oranges.  Humanitarian interventions (genuine ones) are not, and should not be, about “regime change.”  If the Libya action was a TRUE “humanitarian action,” the U.S. and its allies would not even be TALKING about “regime change” - by force or otherwise.

Yes, Qaddafi is a tyrant, just as Saddam was.  And he is just as happy to kill his own people as Saddam was.  But, at the risk of sounding callous, anything OTHER than a genuine humanitarian intervention - and particularly an unprovoked, pre-emptive regime change (like Iraq), and the attempt to force a “top-down” democracy - is an illegal and, frankly, outrageous external interference in the affairs of a sovereign nation.

Iraq was just plain wrong.  So is Libya now that it has obviously gone from “humanitarian” intervention to an attempt at regime change.

Peace. (?)

Just saw this at The Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/the-daily-cartoon-760940.html

It astounds me, on reflection, how many American citizens think it just fine that the U.S. be a nation that decides what other nations to attack and when, for whatever stated reason.  Listen to Phil Ochs’s song, “Cops of the World,” sometime.  Better yet, go to the Michael Moore site, where he has some very pointed remarks on the speech tonight by our “Constitutional expert” and what this would mean if, oh, say…Palin were President.

The only civilians that Obama is concerned about are his donors of corporate collateral.  The rest are just collateral damage.

“But what is more critical is that this is the first time the UN sanctioned a regime change——a very dangerous precedent.”

Would you have preferred them to sanction a genocide, as they did when they stood by and let the Syrian government slaughter 80,000 of their own people during a similar uprising in 1982? Or as they did when they didn’t act in Rwanda and acted almost too late in Bosnia? There would have been regime change in Libya under any scenario because the majority of Libyans want it and have put their lives on the line to achieve it. Qaddafi was always going to go, the question was only how much death and destruction could he achieve before he went. Now that death and destruction will be limited which is why the no fly zone was put in place in the first place. I also hope that all of Qadaffi’s ill-gotten gains, money he stole from the Libyan people, have been frozen, as Mubarak’s was.

hello. if you can not see by now that oil barons are
the New World Order, and they drive up food prices to
stir reforms in the name of democracy, while replacing
one dictator -with another subjugating general (on the
payroll), you are stuck on gasoline. these Libyans are
casualties of oil control, with a generous helping of
Halliburton. regime change is better profit margins for
oil shareholders.

California Ray…

I hope you’re being facetious.  The UN resolution authorizing the coalition to use military force first to ensure a no-fly zone and second to us all means to protect civilians is basically an open invitation to war on Libya.  The UN has virtually sanctioned a regime change and I would have to surmise that TPTB know who will take the reins of power once Qaddafi and his minions have been eliminated one way or another.  The ragtag rebels are only a tool—-a shadow government is well underway composed of officials that defected from Qaddafi in the past.  It should be over in another 4-6 weeks.  I shouldn’t say this, but CIA operatives are on the ground directing the air strikes against Gaddafi’s armor and this will be necessary in Misratah where tanks are in close proximity to residential areas though most civilians will have evacuated by the time the resistance approaches.  After Misratah, the way is clear to Tripoli.  My sources tell me that when Misratah falls Qaddafi will flee——like most desert Arabs they’re brave in numbers, but quick to run when outnumbered.

whenever Khadaffi calls for a cease fire (not that he means to abide to it) you know things aren’t going well for him. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Libyan Rebels Close on Sirte
Libyan rebel forces have pushed closer to Muammar Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, a key government stronghold that lies between the rebel-held city of Benghazi and the capital Tripoli. http://www.newslook.com/videos/300630-libyan-rebels-close-on-sirte?autoplay=true

According to the Pentagon, military aircraft under President Obama’s command
recently attacked ground troops along the Libyan coast and in Tripoli.
It would seem that President Obama believes that those attacks do not violate
international law. I wonder on what facts he bases that belief.

If you kill the guys shooting at your guys then they can’t shoot at your guys
anymore. It’s the corollary to the saying: A strong offense is the best defense.
Really, when you bring in people who’s job is to kill other people, what did you
expect?

I think it is pretty obvious that the ruling classes of the West have long since found Qaddafi a loose cannon and would like to get rid of him if it can be done cheaply.  I don’t think they have anything against the current crop of Arab dictators being replaced by pseudo-democratic bourgeois republics of the sort they run at home.  What’s the problem?

I hate to say I told you so, but I did.  The USA led coalition always had this strategy.  This was not just a humanitarian effort——it was the removal of Qaddafi from office——regime change if you will.  The wording of the resolution made it obvious this was the ultimate outcome.  But what is more critical is that this is the first time the UN sanctioned a regime change——a very dangerous precedent.

I feel an onslaught of Obama apologists is near at hand. The hypocrisy might
be more obvious when you consider the collateral murder being committed
upon innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, etc., etc., by American
forces, then having Obama and company spouting that they are so concerned
about civilians in Libya. The hypocrisy is everywhere considering how protesters
and again innocent civilians are being killed throughout the middle east. You
could lump Gaza in the mix as well. Oh, we are getting fed a line of crap as per
usual while the middle east chess match goes on and on while getting all self
righteous and morally concerned. I’d rather they say we are concerned about
the stability in the Middle East because it is in our best greedy interests and be
done with it. Of course that does not play well with American public
consumption therefore the Disneyland syndrome perpetuates. Let’s get ready
for a shit load of cosmic platitudes from Obama in his address to the nation
tonight. Help win the future for Libya and such claptrap. Dipstick can’t even go
after the financial terrorists that have almost brought this country to it’s knees,
now he wants to go after bad guys in far away Libya under the pretext of
humanitarianism. Up yours Barry as well as your misguided apologists. Hope
and change, my ass.

Smells like regime change? Maybe. But to the Libyans it smells very damn sweet. Qaddafi has been a dictator, unelected and unaccountable for 42 years. His regime hanged people in the streets, presumably without trial and presumably to scare the shit out of every single Libyan citizen. The woman lawyer pack raped by the Libyan army is now sitting in jail. Qaddadi’s gang has offered her family money for her to shut up or change her story and her sister has also been arrested. Get the picture. The Libyans have had it with this gang of psychopaths and thugs and isn’t the overthrow of undemocratic regimes in the Middle East what America has been demanding for years? Careful, your hypocrisy’s showing. I suppose if Qaddafi had butchered everyone in Benghazi you would be accusing Obama of being a heartless coward. Hand me the vomit bag.