Just assassinate Gadaffi. It is possibly the most legal/ just/ humane thing that NATO could do.
Those of you who know me, or read my blog or continue reading this sentence would know that I am often not to be taken too seriously. I prefer writing more light hearted posts on popular culture or to find the humour in some serious stories. Because the one thing the web does not need is another muslim blogger with half baked conspiracy theories challenging the status quo. I mean, we are talking Muammar Gadaffi here. You've seen his pictures. Heard the eccentric stories of him living in a tent outside Central Park whenever he visits the UN. Listened to snippets of him shout angrily in a foreign language. Who can or would want to defend him. Definitely not me!
However I think it's time I risk being unpopular to speak about an injustice regardless of whether I may be perceived as a Gadaffi symphatiser. The injustice I refer to is of course, the Nato War on Libya. Of course, people in the Obama administration are quick to label this, anything but a War, as there is a very heated legal debate currently underway in the US Congress regarding the legality of this war, or as the Obama administration prefer, ' A time-limited, scope-limited military action'. This 'military action ' involves the daily bombing of Libya, a strict naval blockade, the destruction of the Gadaffi family compound (wherein both his son and three grandchildren died) and the deployment of special forces in Libya.
Before proceeding, I should clarify the title. Inspired by a weekend of sheer chaos by NATO wherein they admitted mistakenly bombing the rebels on Saturday, bombing (in error) a civilian target on Sunday that included children amongst the dead and on Monday not being able to confirm whteher the building they hit was a command centre or a private home but they could confirm that here too, children were amongst the casualties. I am not trying to naively gather sympathy for pro Gadaffi supporters because one accepts these kind of events as part and parcel of the ugly consequence of war, but therein lies the problem with this entire affair. Who sanctioned this War? Why has it been sanctioned? And what is it's ultimate aim? If the aim is to effect a regime change, then I propose that Muammer Gadaffi be assassinated. I believe this would be in the best interest of the Libyan People you are striving to protect. Less infrastructure to rebuild, fewer unnecessary loss of life and an assurance that the economic interests of the NATO nations will be taken care off.
The Case for War
Muammar Gadaffi is the perfect villain. He is arguably insane, eccentric, prances around in military costumes and prefers living in a tented compound even when visiting other countries. All the Western media would have to do is show demented images of the African leader coupled with tales of his war crimes and eccentricity and the public would support this military endeavor. Unfortunately Joe Soap is not so gullible anymore. One of the most notorious pieces of disinformation and propaganda, in recent history, that greatly helped to rally support for the 1990 - 1991 war to free Kuwaiti's and re-install the monarchy was the appearance of a 15 year old Kuwaiti girl who testified to a US congressional committee, how she witnessed Iraqi soldiers tip babies out of incubators and leave them to die on the floor. Her account of the incident created an outrage until some time later it was revealed that she was in fact the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to Washington and had consequently never left the US during the Iraqi invasion.
After having done 'dying babies' and the 'search for WMD's', Muammar Gadaffi picked the next most vile thing to killing babies, ordering the mass rape of all woman who opposed him and going the 'extra mile' by acquiring viagra-like medicines to encourage them to do so. As stated earlier, Gadaffi could be insane so I am in no way going to stick my neck out in his defense. What is shocking however, is even after, what must have been a significant pharmaceutical bill, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both found no evidence of such government ordered mass rape despite extensive investigations. Ms Diana Eltahawy who is Amnesty International's Libya expert has been quoted as saying,
"We spoke to women, without anybody else there, all across Libya, including Misrata and on the Tunisia-Libya border. None of them knew of anybody who had been raped. We also spoke to many doctors and psychologists with the same result."
Of course this does not stop news channels from perpetuating uncollaborated stories about all the mayham and war crimes presently being perpetrated by the Libyan leader. Things that further frustrate me about the war on Libya are:
- The Hypocrisy - In recent times both Syria and Bahrain have committed heinous crimes against unarmed civilians yet they are not rebuked or sanctioned for their actions.
- Follow the money - On March 15th, Muammar Gadaffi stated publicly that he did not trust Western oil firms and that future oil contracts would be going to the Chinese, Russians and Indians. The bombing started a few days later.
- Who are the rebels? Do they represent the people? Have the rag-tag National Transitional Council that has now been deemed, 'The legitimate representative' of the Libyan People ever stated any vision/ plans for democracy.
- Is NATO adequately testing offers for a truce and supervised elections?
- Libya did not attack the US or any embassy or any member of NATO for that matter.
- Who is going to get the contract to rebuild all the infrastructure that is being bombed daily?