Just last week President Barack Obama, President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Prime Minister David Cameron wrote an op-ed in which the three imperial powers jointly defend their ‘intervention’ in Libya. While it may seem like a legitimate argument, what the op-ed shows is Western hypocrisy and lies.
They first state the reasons that for the ‘intervention’ into Libya, saying:
“We must never forget the reasons why the international community was obliged to act in the first place. As Libya descended into chaos with Colonel Gaddafi attacking his own people, the Arab League called for action. The Libyan opposition called for help. And the people of Libya looked to the world in their hour of need.”
For some reason, the irony of that statement goes unnoted. They argue that the “international community” went into Libya because “Gaddafi [was] attacking his own people” and “the people of Libya looked to the world in their hour of need.”
However, aren’t the citizens of Bahrain, Yemen, and Djibouti also being attacked by their respective governments?
Aren’t they just as deserving of help as the Libyan opposition? The three leaders expose their own hypocrisy, yet don’t even realize it!
Their second argument is that they had UN backing and that “the United Nations Security Council authorized all necessary measures to protect the people of Libya from the attacks upon them.” What is conviently ignored, however, is that the airstrikes have also been killing civilians and rebels. These events have been highly publicized and the fact that they refuse to acknowledge them only serves to show their arrogance and refusal to admit any wrongdoing. The trio states that “Tens of thousands of lives have been protected. But the people of Libya are suffering terrible horrors at Gaddafi’s hands each and every day.” Yet they refuse to acknowledge the “terrible horrors” that the Libyan people are suffering at their hands.
Most interestingly in the op-ed, the trio openly admits that they are seeking regime change in Libya. Last month UK Prime Minister David Cameron stated that there would be “no regime change [in Libya], no occupying force.” Yet he and his cohorts state:
“Our duty and our mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1973 is to protect civilians, and we are doing that. It is not to remove Gaddafi by force. But it is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Gaddafi in power” (emphasis added)
After all the rhetoric from the US, the UK, and France about there being no plan to overthrow Gaddafi, they finally admit their imperial goals. They plan to overthrow the Gaddafi government in order to form “a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process.” One must wonder how much change will actually occur when the head of the rebel Libyan government was an ex-minister in the Gaddafi regime.
In that same paragraph, the trio states that it would be an “an unconscionable betrayal” of the “brave citizens” of Libya if they were to stop bombing their country. However, wasn’t it also “an unconscionable betrayal” of the people Egypt when the US backed Mubarak, who constantly oppressed his citizens? Isn’t it “an unconscionable betrayal” of Palestinians when the Israel kills civilians and the US and its allies do nothing?
The West has been lying, cheating, and deceiving people for much too long.
The people of Libya need to reject both the Gaddafi regime and the Western-controlled opposition government and find a new way to govern their country where neither madmen nor puppets dictate their lives, only then will the Libyan people find freedom.
Devon DB is 19 years old and studying political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
