The rationale for our latest foreign murder campaign is the ridiculous notion that because Muammar al-Gaddafi is an undemocratic semi-tyrant we have the right to interfere in the affairs of a nation which may very well soon be run by a full tyrant if and when Gaddafi is replaced. And then only by having the rebels assisted from outside Libya, if they hadn’t already been organized from outside Libya. Clearly, some Libyans hate his guts, but some love him, and as for those who hate him, how odd is it that a leader is hated by some of his people?
Face it, if someone had put a bullet through Bush’s empty head—or now, through Obama’s supposedly full one—there would be great joy experienced by many Americans, whether they’d show it in public or not. And neither of those two servants of corporate capital and Israel are demonic tyrants, except in the feverish minds of their most fanatic detractors.
Most of us really don’t know which end is up or down in Libya and who is behind what and believing news indicating that Gaddafi is a monster from hell and the rebels are descended from god makes no difference what segment of mind-managed America you think yourself a part of, since all of us are being subjected to the same media crap.
How many images have you seen of rebels giving the V sign for victory, dancing on a tank or giving power salutes to planes bombing their fellow citizens? How many images have you seen of the alleged blood bath of thousands of Libyans murdered by the fiendish thug mercenaries of the monster devil, genocidal Gaddafi?
What happened to the cell phone or digital cameras used to supply all those glorious rebel victory images? Did they run out of batteries just at the moment of Gaddafi’s mass murders, shrieked about but unseen?
Acceptance of this kind of garbage makes us all part of the creeping assholism that passes for American intelligence, whether we consider ourselves right wing, liberal or on the diminished and barely existing left.
The Gaddafi monsters keep killing people but what are the rebels doing? Making love to them? Giving them free health care? Are those tanks they destroy operated by robots? Are the stories—and some scenes available on the Internet—of African blacks with their hands tied behind their backs after being executed by rebels merely propaganda from Gaddafi’s family photo album?
The fact that some people on what passes for the American left uncritically accept fairy tales about Gaddafi and his goodness—or his evil—is no different than some other people believe fairy tales about his opposition, with both sides having zero knowledge except opinion shaped by sources they think reputable and others find sheer nonsense.
In their innocent and sincere desire for peace, ignorant people at a web site got hundreds of thousands of signatures calling for no-fly zones to “save lives.” They played a role in helping to create more murders based on informational garbage presented to them as support for peace. The road to hell can indeed be paved with good intentions. The lesson should be clear: screw acting on your intentions until you know what the hell is actually going on, please.
Until we transform this country into a peaceful humanitarian leader among nations, we cannot trust its leadership further than we can throw a lead piano. Any military intervention by the USA under its present control—any, anywhere, at any time!—will be done to support continuity of the empire, global capital and the suppression of anything that stands in the way of imperial rule of the global market.
Whether we consider ourselves pacifists, warriors, Democrats, Republicans, morons or relatively thoughtful people, we really ought to mind our own damn business, clean up the filthy mess that we have here and are extending all over the planet and cut the crap about stepping in to avoid murder elsewhere. It’s homicidal nonsense, very much like a rapist claiming he’s sticking his filthy member into his victim to protect her virginity.
There is a simplistic tendency on the part of people here, regardless of political labels worn or belief systems observed, to accept the ridiculous notion that a nation which has murdered millions over its history is somehow going to save lives by invading and making more war on those alleged to be committing, or about to commit, some variation on the theme of the overused g-word, genocide. The g-word comes into play whenever there is violence anywhere that is perpetuated by non-Western sources, unless they were Nazis.
Of course we should be humanitarian and help those in need, but we ought to begin at home and once we have learned how to do that, we might be able to assist others, if and when they ask us, not to go to war, but to help them negotiate for peace, or find shelter from disaster. Until then, I would urge all who feel humanistic and peace loving and wanting to avoid blood baths and exterminations and genocide whether a rebellious force of any kind which wishes to destroy its government has any responsibility to pick a fight with authority when it is able to contest that authority? Or should it just mindlessly attack and then scream for help when it gets its ass kicked?
That seems a made-in-America middle class brat’s way of demanding change without being able to bring it about yourself, and then calling Mom and Dad or imperial headquarters to get bailed out.
If American militias of the right-wing or tea party types attacked a state or municipal government here and the central government reacted the way Libya’s did, humanitarians , online or off, would all stand up and defend their right to keep and bear arms, fight the oppressive liberal-socialist government in Washington, and . . . oh sure.
For those seriously wanting to find out why this matter is of such importance to the Western regimes led by the USA, consider this small portion of a WikiLeaked State Department document from late 2007: “But those who dominate Libya’s political and economic leadership are pursuing increasingly nationalistic policies in the energy sector that could jeopardize efficient exploitation of Libya’s extensive oil and gas reserves. Effective U.S. engagement on this issue should take the form of demonstrating the clear downsides to the government of Libya of pursuing this approach . . . ’”
That hardly covers all the reasons but it’s far closer to material reality than the crap we’ve been fed. Humanitarian concerns my ass . . . grow up, people.
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Lies, damn lies, and Libya
Posted on April 6, 2011 by Frank Scott
The rationale for our latest foreign murder campaign is the ridiculous notion that because Muammar al-Gaddafi is an undemocratic semi-tyrant we have the right to interfere in the affairs of a nation which may very well soon be run by a full tyrant if and when Gaddafi is replaced. And then only by having the rebels assisted from outside Libya, if they hadn’t already been organized from outside Libya. Clearly, some Libyans hate his guts, but some love him, and as for those who hate him, how odd is it that a leader is hated by some of his people?
Face it, if someone had put a bullet through Bush’s empty head—or now, through Obama’s supposedly full one—there would be great joy experienced by many Americans, whether they’d show it in public or not. And neither of those two servants of corporate capital and Israel are demonic tyrants, except in the feverish minds of their most fanatic detractors.
Most of us really don’t know which end is up or down in Libya and who is behind what and believing news indicating that Gaddafi is a monster from hell and the rebels are descended from god makes no difference what segment of mind-managed America you think yourself a part of, since all of us are being subjected to the same media crap.
How many images have you seen of rebels giving the V sign for victory, dancing on a tank or giving power salutes to planes bombing their fellow citizens? How many images have you seen of the alleged blood bath of thousands of Libyans murdered by the fiendish thug mercenaries of the monster devil, genocidal Gaddafi?
What happened to the cell phone or digital cameras used to supply all those glorious rebel victory images? Did they run out of batteries just at the moment of Gaddafi’s mass murders, shrieked about but unseen?
Acceptance of this kind of garbage makes us all part of the creeping assholism that passes for American intelligence, whether we consider ourselves right wing, liberal or on the diminished and barely existing left.
The Gaddafi monsters keep killing people but what are the rebels doing? Making love to them? Giving them free health care? Are those tanks they destroy operated by robots? Are the stories—and some scenes available on the Internet—of African blacks with their hands tied behind their backs after being executed by rebels merely propaganda from Gaddafi’s family photo album?
The fact that some people on what passes for the American left uncritically accept fairy tales about Gaddafi and his goodness—or his evil—is no different than some other people believe fairy tales about his opposition, with both sides having zero knowledge except opinion shaped by sources they think reputable and others find sheer nonsense.
In their innocent and sincere desire for peace, ignorant people at a web site got hundreds of thousands of signatures calling for no-fly zones to “save lives.” They played a role in helping to create more murders based on informational garbage presented to them as support for peace. The road to hell can indeed be paved with good intentions. The lesson should be clear: screw acting on your intentions until you know what the hell is actually going on, please.
Until we transform this country into a peaceful humanitarian leader among nations, we cannot trust its leadership further than we can throw a lead piano. Any military intervention by the USA under its present control—any, anywhere, at any time!—will be done to support continuity of the empire, global capital and the suppression of anything that stands in the way of imperial rule of the global market.
Whether we consider ourselves pacifists, warriors, Democrats, Republicans, morons or relatively thoughtful people, we really ought to mind our own damn business, clean up the filthy mess that we have here and are extending all over the planet and cut the crap about stepping in to avoid murder elsewhere. It’s homicidal nonsense, very much like a rapist claiming he’s sticking his filthy member into his victim to protect her virginity.
There is a simplistic tendency on the part of people here, regardless of political labels worn or belief systems observed, to accept the ridiculous notion that a nation which has murdered millions over its history is somehow going to save lives by invading and making more war on those alleged to be committing, or about to commit, some variation on the theme of the overused g-word, genocide. The g-word comes into play whenever there is violence anywhere that is perpetuated by non-Western sources, unless they were Nazis.
Of course we should be humanitarian and help those in need, but we ought to begin at home and once we have learned how to do that, we might be able to assist others, if and when they ask us, not to go to war, but to help them negotiate for peace, or find shelter from disaster. Until then, I would urge all who feel humanistic and peace loving and wanting to avoid blood baths and exterminations and genocide whether a rebellious force of any kind which wishes to destroy its government has any responsibility to pick a fight with authority when it is able to contest that authority? Or should it just mindlessly attack and then scream for help when it gets its ass kicked?
That seems a made-in-America middle class brat’s way of demanding change without being able to bring it about yourself, and then calling Mom and Dad or imperial headquarters to get bailed out.
If American militias of the right-wing or tea party types attacked a state or municipal government here and the central government reacted the way Libya’s did, humanitarians , online or off, would all stand up and defend their right to keep and bear arms, fight the oppressive liberal-socialist government in Washington, and . . . oh sure.
For those seriously wanting to find out why this matter is of such importance to the Western regimes led by the USA, consider this small portion of a WikiLeaked State Department document from late 2007: “But those who dominate Libya’s political and economic leadership are pursuing increasingly nationalistic policies in the energy sector that could jeopardize efficient exploitation of Libya’s extensive oil and gas reserves. Effective U.S. engagement on this issue should take the form of demonstrating the clear downsides to the government of Libya of pursuing this approach . . . ’”
That hardly covers all the reasons but it’s far closer to material reality than the crap we’ve been fed. Humanitarian concerns my ass . . . grow up, people.
Copyright © 2011 Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
Frank Scott writes political commentary which appears in print in the Coastal Post and The Independent Monitor and online at the blog Legalienate.