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Protest - Stop the Bombing of Libya!
Import event into your personal calendar
Date:
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Time:
5:00 PM
-
6:00 PM
Event Type:
Protest
Organizer/Author:
ANSWER Coalition
Email:
Phone:
415-821-6545
Address:
ANSWER Office: 2969 Mission St
Location Details:
New Federal Building
7th and Mission Sts.
7th and Mission Sts.
Bombing Libya to "save Libya":
The forces behind this war
Emergency demonstrations across the country this Wed-Sat. Visit http://www.ANSWERcoaltion.org for a list of protests.
The same global powers that used the force of arms to colonize Africa, suction out its natural resources and enslave millions of its people are now raining bombs and missiles down on the continent’s largest oil producer.
A great irony in the vicious and yet cowardly attack on Libya is that the same exploiters and enslavers of Africa explain their most recent act of mass violence as motivated by a tender concern for democracy and freedom for Libyans.
On Libya’s eastern border is Egypt, where the U.S. government financed, armed and cheered on the Mubarak dictatorship until the very last days of the tyrant’s hold on power. Even during the people's uprising at Tahrir Square and elsewhere, the spigot of U.S. “foreign aid” kept flowing to Mubarak. After Israel, Egypt’s torturers were the second-largest recipient of this “aid.”
The U.S. government is at war again. How could they get away with launching another war when they tell us the country is so broke that vital public services must be slashed and public workers must be fired in massive numbers?
The people of the United States are opposed to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and would openly oppose a third U.S. war in a Muslim country. So President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defense Gates are going out of the way to assure the country that all the bleeding will be exclusively from Libyans.
When U.S./NATO forces destroyed Serbia and broke up Yugoslavia in the 1999 aerial war, they dropped 23,000 bombs and missiles on Yugoslavs and not one U.S. soldier died.
As they did in the 19th century, the colonialists—who have now morphed into modern-day imperialists—bribed or coerced some indigenous elites to function as their partners and clients. Today, the so-called Arab League provided some early cover to mask the imperialist character of the operation.
As U.S. planes drop terror bombs in the center of Tripoli, CIA-operated drone aircrafts are carrying out missile attacks on villages in Pakistan, and Pentagon forces are bombing the people of Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops still occupy Iraq after a war that took 1 million Iraqi lives.
The dominant force practicing terrorism in the world today is the U.S. government, the Pentagon and the CIA.
Washington's goal in Libya is to have the U.S.-backed rebel leadership of Libya's civil war take power in all of Libya or, as an alternative, to become a new governing power in the oil-rich eastern part of the country.
The cheerleaders for this "democracy movement" went from right-wing Republicans to some liberal Democrats. It is a repeat of the political alignment that led to the first Iraq war in 1991 and the Yugoslav war in 1999. In this case too, they were joined by some in the U.S. anti-war movement, including some self-described "socialists," desiring to show their "democratic" credentials and wanting to accommodate to liberal mainstream public opinion. By their cheerleading for a rebellion whose leaders demanded foreign intervention, and focusing all their fire on the Libyan government, they only contributed to confusion in the weeks leading up to the onslaught against Libya. They are embarrassed about their position now that the imperial carnage is clear for all to see.
The United States needs a real anti-imperialist movement—a movement that can resist the lies and demonization schemes that the corporate media churns out to justify military aggression. That’s why the ANSWER Coalition is mobilizing a movement in the streets that extends a hand of solidarity to the people of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine who have both suffered and resisted the terrorism of the greatest war machine in human history. Please join us in the streets in coming days in demonstrations across the country. For a list of protests around the country, http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org.
For analysis and information on U.S. strategy toward Libya, read the articles below at http://www.PSLweb.org:
After Libya declares ceasefire, U.S. government lays bare its imperialist ambitions
U.S. progressives must tell truth about Libya and impact of foreign intervention
The forces behind this war
Emergency demonstrations across the country this Wed-Sat. Visit http://www.ANSWERcoaltion.org for a list of protests.
The same global powers that used the force of arms to colonize Africa, suction out its natural resources and enslave millions of its people are now raining bombs and missiles down on the continent’s largest oil producer.
A great irony in the vicious and yet cowardly attack on Libya is that the same exploiters and enslavers of Africa explain their most recent act of mass violence as motivated by a tender concern for democracy and freedom for Libyans.
On Libya’s eastern border is Egypt, where the U.S. government financed, armed and cheered on the Mubarak dictatorship until the very last days of the tyrant’s hold on power. Even during the people's uprising at Tahrir Square and elsewhere, the spigot of U.S. “foreign aid” kept flowing to Mubarak. After Israel, Egypt’s torturers were the second-largest recipient of this “aid.”
The U.S. government is at war again. How could they get away with launching another war when they tell us the country is so broke that vital public services must be slashed and public workers must be fired in massive numbers?
The people of the United States are opposed to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and would openly oppose a third U.S. war in a Muslim country. So President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defense Gates are going out of the way to assure the country that all the bleeding will be exclusively from Libyans.
When U.S./NATO forces destroyed Serbia and broke up Yugoslavia in the 1999 aerial war, they dropped 23,000 bombs and missiles on Yugoslavs and not one U.S. soldier died.
As they did in the 19th century, the colonialists—who have now morphed into modern-day imperialists—bribed or coerced some indigenous elites to function as their partners and clients. Today, the so-called Arab League provided some early cover to mask the imperialist character of the operation.
As U.S. planes drop terror bombs in the center of Tripoli, CIA-operated drone aircrafts are carrying out missile attacks on villages in Pakistan, and Pentagon forces are bombing the people of Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops still occupy Iraq after a war that took 1 million Iraqi lives.
The dominant force practicing terrorism in the world today is the U.S. government, the Pentagon and the CIA.
Washington's goal in Libya is to have the U.S.-backed rebel leadership of Libya's civil war take power in all of Libya or, as an alternative, to become a new governing power in the oil-rich eastern part of the country.
The cheerleaders for this "democracy movement" went from right-wing Republicans to some liberal Democrats. It is a repeat of the political alignment that led to the first Iraq war in 1991 and the Yugoslav war in 1999. In this case too, they were joined by some in the U.S. anti-war movement, including some self-described "socialists," desiring to show their "democratic" credentials and wanting to accommodate to liberal mainstream public opinion. By their cheerleading for a rebellion whose leaders demanded foreign intervention, and focusing all their fire on the Libyan government, they only contributed to confusion in the weeks leading up to the onslaught against Libya. They are embarrassed about their position now that the imperial carnage is clear for all to see.
The United States needs a real anti-imperialist movement—a movement that can resist the lies and demonization schemes that the corporate media churns out to justify military aggression. That’s why the ANSWER Coalition is mobilizing a movement in the streets that extends a hand of solidarity to the people of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine who have both suffered and resisted the terrorism of the greatest war machine in human history. Please join us in the streets in coming days in demonstrations across the country. For a list of protests around the country, http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org.
For analysis and information on U.S. strategy toward Libya, read the articles below at http://www.PSLweb.org:
After Libya declares ceasefire, U.S. government lays bare its imperialist ambitions
U.S. progressives must tell truth about Libya and impact of foreign intervention
For more information:
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
Added to the calendar on Mon, Mar 21, 2011 12:18PM
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you guys like to protest everything, the UN actually did something right here and stopped a complete massacre on the Libyan rebels and civilians fighting for democracy.
col gaddafi is insane with no respect for human rights and dignity what so ever he has vowed to kill any person who is not with him shit theres multipliable news conferences with him saying that and he sure as fuck has been doing just that. have you not kept up with what was going on in Libya? gaddafi sent war planes, helicopter gun ships, heavily armed mercenaries backed by his sons well trained personal army's after peaceful democratic protest mowing people down with anti aircraft weapons, assault rifles turning demonstrations into a rebellion because the people were brave anuf to fight back against a fascist monarchy. yea this is kinda a grey area here on what we should and should not do in foreign nations when to stay out of it but this is one thing i agree with and my only beef with the bombing on Libyan gov targets is the UN dident pass the no fly zone sooner and the double standard with Bahrain and Yemen after they have done the same thing to there people.
col gaddafi is insane with no respect for human rights and dignity what so ever he has vowed to kill any person who is not with him shit theres multipliable news conferences with him saying that and he sure as fuck has been doing just that. have you not kept up with what was going on in Libya? gaddafi sent war planes, helicopter gun ships, heavily armed mercenaries backed by his sons well trained personal army's after peaceful democratic protest mowing people down with anti aircraft weapons, assault rifles turning demonstrations into a rebellion because the people were brave anuf to fight back against a fascist monarchy. yea this is kinda a grey area here on what we should and should not do in foreign nations when to stay out of it but this is one thing i agree with and my only beef with the bombing on Libyan gov targets is the UN dident pass the no fly zone sooner and the double standard with Bahrain and Yemen after they have done the same thing to there people.
I doubt this protest will even get more than a few dozen of the usual suspects-- Stalinists, ice-pick heads, and code-pink wingnuts. ANSWER supports both the Iranian and Syrian dictatorships-- they have zero credibility. I pretty much agree with the above posters comments.
to your post
Libya is not the largest oil producer in Africa, Nigeria is. Libya has the largest stockpile of oil in its reserves.
correct your shit i could rip right thru it but ANSWER has no credibility to ruin anyways.
Libya is not the largest oil producer in Africa, Nigeria is. Libya has the largest stockpile of oil in its reserves.
correct your shit i could rip right thru it but ANSWER has no credibility to ruin anyways.
opportunity when it sees one. Because we live in a capitalist society it is easy to be distracted what with all the wealth we have. Of course there have been cutbacks - I mean wealth to spend on endless war. I wouldn't want to be at the other end facing America's huge weapons of destruction. More oil means more drilling in the Mediterranean and less democracy. The more wars, the less democracy.
Obama is not only a war criminal for all his wars, including his attack on Libya, he is criminally insane for promoting nuclear power and an open, proud fascist for his torture of Bradley Manning, his support of indefinite detention and targeted assassinations and his promotion of secret prisons and rendition, as well as his false imprisonment of attorney Lynne Stewart and refusal to support parole for Leonard Peltier or the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal, among many others. In addition, his anti-public school, pro-charter school agenda and his support of cutting auto workers' wages in half to a poverty wage demonstrate his anti-workingclass agenda and the fact that he can only be re-(s)elected by election fraud.
Libya vital statistics: From Time Almanac: Life expectancy 74.3 male, 78.8 female. Literacy: 88%, male literacy 93%, female literacy 83% (far better than Egypt, for example)
The World Socialist Website of 3/22/11 has an excellent editorial and news article condemning the barbaric imperialist US attack on Libya.
1. Editorial: The bombing of Gaddafi’s compound
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/pers-m22.shtml
The bombing of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s personal compound in Tripoli Sunday night epitomizes the criminal character of the war launched by the US and its allies and exposes the humanitarian pretenses of a supposedly “limited action” to protect civilians.
The cruise missile reportedly fired by a British submarine reduced a three-story building at the compound to rubble. Earlier on Sunday, British Defense Secretary Liam Fox had said that Gaddafi was a legitimate target in the massive air assault being waged by the United States, Britain and France against the virtually defenseless former colonial country.
The bombing of Gaddafi’s residence highlights the brazenness with which the US-led war coalition is using the legal fig leaf of a UN Security Council resolution ostensibly authorizing a no-fly zone to indiscriminately attack both military and civilian targets. The purpose of the UN-sanctioned aggression is not to protect civilians, but to destroy Gaddafi’s military infrastructure and, if possible, murder the head of state himself in order to replace his dictatorial regime with an even more pliant tool of the US, France and Britain and the Western oil conglomerates.
Once again, the United Nations has revealed itself to be nothing other than a tool of the great powers, vindicating Lenin’s apt designation of its predecessor, the League of Nations, as a “thieves’ kitchen.”
Media dispatches say some 300 Gaddafi supporters were in the compound at the time of the attack, although the Libyan government has not reported any casualties in the explosion.
It appears that President Barack Obama is going out of his way to claim the barbaric mantle of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, launching the war on the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and bombing Gaddafi’s compound just shy of 25 years since Reagan bombed the same facility, killing 60 Libyans, including Gaddafi’s adopted daughter.
For all the talk of a limited and narrowly defined intervention, the US pushed for language in the UN resolution passed last Thursday authorizing “all necessary measures” against Gaddafi’s forces. This provided a green light for an all-out war.
The supposed prohibition of “occupation troops” is another fraud. British cabinet ministers and Prime Minister David Cameron are already saying that British troops could be introduced for the supposed purpose of policing the arms embargo without violating the UN resolution.
For the past decade Gaddafi has enjoyed the warmest of relations with Washington and the European capitals, having agreed to close down his nuclear facilities, collaborate in the US “war on terror” and grant lucrative oil concessions to Western firms. But he now joins a long list of one-time US imperialist assets who, despite their best efforts, fell afoul of the geostrategic aims of the American ruling elite. The list includes Panama’s Noriega, Somalia’s Aidid, Serbia’s Milosevic and Saddam Hussein.
In the broader struggle of the US to contain and ultimately crush the revolutionary wave engulfing much of North Africa and the Middle East, Gaddafi became expendable. Washington seized on the uprising against Gaddafi based in the east of Libya, and may have had a hand in its eruption [THE US CERTAINLY HAD A HAND IN THE "REVOLT" AS THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES], to remove Gaddafi and fashion a new colonial-style regime from which the US can act militarily and politically against the threat of socialist revolution, particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and protect its key ally, Israel.
With typical double-talk, Obama and his counterparts in Europe seek to combine the demand for regime change with pledges to allow the Libyan people to decide their own fate. In fact, the aggression against Libya is aimed precisely at preventing the working class in the lead of the oppressed masses of Libya and the entire region from settling scores with the various bourgeois stooge regimes and breaking the stranglehold of imperialism by taking power into their own hands.
There is an additional motive behind the savagery of the attack on Libya. Washington cannot permit any leader to defy its dictates with impunity. Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman alluded to this on a Sunday talk show, declaring that once the US demanded his resignation Gaddafi had to go because the international prestige of the United States was on the line.
Libya is to be made an object lesson for all oppressed countries. The display of the ability of the imperialist powers to rain down death and destruction by unleashing immense firepower is aimed at intimidating the revolutionary aspirations of workers and youth throughout the region.
The violence of imperialism is fueled by the deepening economic, social and political contradictions and sharpening inter-imperialist conflicts arising from the breakdown of the global financial system three-and-a-half years ago. The aggressive role of France and Britain in the current war, the belated and hurried efforts of the US to take the lead, the opposition of Russia and Germany to the military intervention reflect the intensifying scramble among the great powers for spheres of influence and control of resources and markets in Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
Under these conditions, the entire post-World War II framework of international law has collapsed. It has been supplanted by the reassertion of war as a legitimate tool of foreign policy, along with such practices as torture and targeted assassinations.
Contained in the new eruption of lawlessness and barbarity in Libya is the drift of capitalism toward world war. Trotsky’s words from 1938 in the founding program of the Fourth International resonate with immense relevance today: “Under the increasing tension of capitalist disintegration, imperialist antagonisms reach an impasse at the height of which separate clashes and bloody local disturbances (Ethiopia, Spain, the Far East, Central Europe) must inevitably coalesce into a conflagration of world dimensions.”
Now, as then, the only way to end war and prevent a global conflagration is to disarm the imperialists by means of the world socialist revolution.
2. "US, Europe intensify Libya onslaught" by Tom Eley
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/liby-m22.shtml
The US, France and the United Kingdom on Monday intensified their bombardment of largely defenseless Libyan security forces, military installations and some civilian sites, including a portion of Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al Azizia compound in the capital, Tripoli.
Hundreds of Libyans have died in the onslaught. The death toll from a hospital destroyed in Tripoli on Saturday was reported by Libyan state television to be 48, with over 150 wounded. Most of the casualties were said to be children.
The highway linking rebel-held Benghazi and Ajdabiya, a city that remains under Gaddafi’s control, was littered with the “burnt out wreckage of what was Gaddafi’s armour and tanks,” Aljazeera correspondent Tony Birtley reported Monday. These soldiers were massacred by US jets as they retreated from Benghazi under a unilateral ceasefire decreed by Gaddafi but rejected by the US and its allies. It was Gaddafi’s second appeal for a ceasefire in three days.
The cruise missile attack on Bab al Azizia, reportedly carried out by the British, came almost 25 years after the Reagan administration’s April 1986 air strikes on the same compound, carried out in the name of fighting terrorism. In that bombing, dozens were killed, including Gaddafi’s adopted daughter.
In spite of efforts to portray the US role as secondary in the attack on Libya, Washington has assumed command over the operation. The US military has carried out the vast majority of cruise missile bombings, and on Sunday it conducted the majority of all sorties.
Three US B-2 stealth bombers have by themselves delivered 45 2,000-pound bombs, 90,000 pounds of ordinance in all, making the round-trip flight from their base in Missouri. The long-distance bombers have reportedly destroyed an airfield in Misrata, west of Tripoli. The US has so far fired 124 Tomahawk cruise missiles from naval vessels.
Italy, Spain, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Greece and Qatar have also participated in the military operations.
The White House and British Prime Minister David Cameron claim that the bombing campaign, “Odyssey Dawn,” has already crippled the Libyan air defense system, which was based largely on antiquated Soviet technology. “We essentially have a no-fly zone,” a White House spokesman told ABC News.
Yet even though a no-fly zone has already effectively been established, the Western powers have accelerated their missile strikes, exposing the lie that the operation’s sole purpose is to protect civilians.
In a state visit to Chile on Monday, Obama declared “it is US policy that Gaddafi has to go.” UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in an interview over the weekend that Gaddafi was a “legitimate target” of US and allied missiles and bombs.
The Western coalition has intervened in a civil war on the side of a rival faction of the Libyan elite based in Benghazi, whose forces are reportedly being armed by the Egyptian military [ALLY OF US IMPERIALISM]. After facing imminent defeat three days ago, rebel forces on Monday left Benghazi to attack neighboring cities controlled by Gaddafi’s troops. They advanced close to the city of Ajdabiya, Al Jazeera reported, but “retreated in disarray when they came under heavy fire from Gaddafi forces.”
Should the rebel forces march on Tripoli under Western air cover, the stage would very likely be set for a bloody confrontation. The commander of the operation, US Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, on Monday said that the coalition will now increase the size of the no-fly zone to target other cities, including Tripoli itself, where much of Libya’s air defenses are located. “It is likely we will encounter the regime’s mobile air defense systems… and will certainly attack them,” Ham declared.
International condemnation of the attacks mounted on Monday. The US, France and Britain, while operating under cover of the UN resolution, are acting outside of the official structures of NATO. Formal NATO participation has been blocked by Turkey, which opposes military action against the Gaddafi regime.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday condemned the operation as a “medieval call to crusade” and called the UN Security Council resolution allowing the attacks “defective and flawed.” Russia, along with China, Brazil, India and Germany, abstained from voting on the resolution, thus allowing the US, France and Britain a veneer of diplomatic legitimacy for the war of aggression.
Speaking at a meeting of the African Union, South African President Jacob Zuma said Monday his government opposed “the regime change doctrine and… the foreign occupation of Libya.”
Zuma was part of a high-profile African Union committee that had intended to travel to Tripoli to broker a peace deal between Gaddafi and the rebel forces. The US-led coalition refused to allow them to land, however.
India has called for an immediate cessation of air strikes, and China convened a United Nations Security Council meeting Monday to discuss Libya.
In Cairo, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was mobbed by dozens of people protesting the bombing campaign against Libya. Ban had intended to visit Tahrir Square on Monday, but the demonstration forced him back into the offices of the Arab League.
The coalition itself showed signs of fracture on Monday. Italy and Norway both protested the ad hoc character of the war, which has been dictated by the US, Britain and France. Norway said its jets will not participate until a NATO-controlled command structure is established.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini suggested that Italy may revoke the use of its military bases for action against Libya if NATO does not control the operation. Italy is Libya’s closest European neighbor and its bases are important for the military operation, although the UK, France and the US have launched air strikes from their own territories and from aircraft carriers off Libyan waters.
Italy, the former colonial power whose effort to pacify the region between 1913 and 1934 costs the lives of tens of thousands of Libyans, originally joined Germany in opposing military intervention, but fell in line after the Obama administration shifted to a war footing. Under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy forged close ties with Gaddafi and has the most extensive interests of the Western powers in Libya.
According to La Repubblica, Berlusconi said that Italy “could not risk to stand aside and only suffer the consequences of the decisions taken by others.” Italy is also requesting “a resolution demanding respect for commercial accords related to gas and oil,” according to the newspaper.
While Britain is also arguing that the operations should be placed under NATO command, France has opposed such a development. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Monday said at a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels that “within a few days NATO could come in to support” the bombing campaign.
Among the European powers, Germany has been the most critical of the bombing campaign. Foreign Secretary Guido Westerwelle reiterated this stance at the EU meeting in Brussels. “German soldiers will not be sent to Libya because we think this war carries real risks not only for Libya itself but for the region as a whole,” he said, while reiterating his government’s support for sanctions.
France ranks behind Italy and Germany among Libya’s trading partners. Britain places seventh after Turkey, and the US accounts for less than 6 percent of Libyan trade, roughly the same share as China.
In the US, the White House has faced tepid criticism from a handful of Republican and Democratic lawmakers for the unilateral use of the military force without congressional discussion, much less approval.
Obama administration officials have responded by insisting that they “consulted” with Congress prior to launching the attacks. “We take the consultative role very seriously,” a senior White House official said.
Libya vital statistics: From Time Almanac: Life expectancy 74.3 male, 78.8 female. Literacy: 88%, male literacy 93%, female literacy 83% (far better than Egypt, for example)
The World Socialist Website of 3/22/11 has an excellent editorial and news article condemning the barbaric imperialist US attack on Libya.
1. Editorial: The bombing of Gaddafi’s compound
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/pers-m22.shtml
The bombing of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s personal compound in Tripoli Sunday night epitomizes the criminal character of the war launched by the US and its allies and exposes the humanitarian pretenses of a supposedly “limited action” to protect civilians.
The cruise missile reportedly fired by a British submarine reduced a three-story building at the compound to rubble. Earlier on Sunday, British Defense Secretary Liam Fox had said that Gaddafi was a legitimate target in the massive air assault being waged by the United States, Britain and France against the virtually defenseless former colonial country.
The bombing of Gaddafi’s residence highlights the brazenness with which the US-led war coalition is using the legal fig leaf of a UN Security Council resolution ostensibly authorizing a no-fly zone to indiscriminately attack both military and civilian targets. The purpose of the UN-sanctioned aggression is not to protect civilians, but to destroy Gaddafi’s military infrastructure and, if possible, murder the head of state himself in order to replace his dictatorial regime with an even more pliant tool of the US, France and Britain and the Western oil conglomerates.
Once again, the United Nations has revealed itself to be nothing other than a tool of the great powers, vindicating Lenin’s apt designation of its predecessor, the League of Nations, as a “thieves’ kitchen.”
Media dispatches say some 300 Gaddafi supporters were in the compound at the time of the attack, although the Libyan government has not reported any casualties in the explosion.
It appears that President Barack Obama is going out of his way to claim the barbaric mantle of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, launching the war on the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and bombing Gaddafi’s compound just shy of 25 years since Reagan bombed the same facility, killing 60 Libyans, including Gaddafi’s adopted daughter.
For all the talk of a limited and narrowly defined intervention, the US pushed for language in the UN resolution passed last Thursday authorizing “all necessary measures” against Gaddafi’s forces. This provided a green light for an all-out war.
The supposed prohibition of “occupation troops” is another fraud. British cabinet ministers and Prime Minister David Cameron are already saying that British troops could be introduced for the supposed purpose of policing the arms embargo without violating the UN resolution.
For the past decade Gaddafi has enjoyed the warmest of relations with Washington and the European capitals, having agreed to close down his nuclear facilities, collaborate in the US “war on terror” and grant lucrative oil concessions to Western firms. But he now joins a long list of one-time US imperialist assets who, despite their best efforts, fell afoul of the geostrategic aims of the American ruling elite. The list includes Panama’s Noriega, Somalia’s Aidid, Serbia’s Milosevic and Saddam Hussein.
In the broader struggle of the US to contain and ultimately crush the revolutionary wave engulfing much of North Africa and the Middle East, Gaddafi became expendable. Washington seized on the uprising against Gaddafi based in the east of Libya, and may have had a hand in its eruption [THE US CERTAINLY HAD A HAND IN THE "REVOLT" AS THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES], to remove Gaddafi and fashion a new colonial-style regime from which the US can act militarily and politically against the threat of socialist revolution, particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and protect its key ally, Israel.
With typical double-talk, Obama and his counterparts in Europe seek to combine the demand for regime change with pledges to allow the Libyan people to decide their own fate. In fact, the aggression against Libya is aimed precisely at preventing the working class in the lead of the oppressed masses of Libya and the entire region from settling scores with the various bourgeois stooge regimes and breaking the stranglehold of imperialism by taking power into their own hands.
There is an additional motive behind the savagery of the attack on Libya. Washington cannot permit any leader to defy its dictates with impunity. Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman alluded to this on a Sunday talk show, declaring that once the US demanded his resignation Gaddafi had to go because the international prestige of the United States was on the line.
Libya is to be made an object lesson for all oppressed countries. The display of the ability of the imperialist powers to rain down death and destruction by unleashing immense firepower is aimed at intimidating the revolutionary aspirations of workers and youth throughout the region.
The violence of imperialism is fueled by the deepening economic, social and political contradictions and sharpening inter-imperialist conflicts arising from the breakdown of the global financial system three-and-a-half years ago. The aggressive role of France and Britain in the current war, the belated and hurried efforts of the US to take the lead, the opposition of Russia and Germany to the military intervention reflect the intensifying scramble among the great powers for spheres of influence and control of resources and markets in Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
Under these conditions, the entire post-World War II framework of international law has collapsed. It has been supplanted by the reassertion of war as a legitimate tool of foreign policy, along with such practices as torture and targeted assassinations.
Contained in the new eruption of lawlessness and barbarity in Libya is the drift of capitalism toward world war. Trotsky’s words from 1938 in the founding program of the Fourth International resonate with immense relevance today: “Under the increasing tension of capitalist disintegration, imperialist antagonisms reach an impasse at the height of which separate clashes and bloody local disturbances (Ethiopia, Spain, the Far East, Central Europe) must inevitably coalesce into a conflagration of world dimensions.”
Now, as then, the only way to end war and prevent a global conflagration is to disarm the imperialists by means of the world socialist revolution.
2. "US, Europe intensify Libya onslaught" by Tom Eley
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/liby-m22.shtml
The US, France and the United Kingdom on Monday intensified their bombardment of largely defenseless Libyan security forces, military installations and some civilian sites, including a portion of Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al Azizia compound in the capital, Tripoli.
Hundreds of Libyans have died in the onslaught. The death toll from a hospital destroyed in Tripoli on Saturday was reported by Libyan state television to be 48, with over 150 wounded. Most of the casualties were said to be children.
The highway linking rebel-held Benghazi and Ajdabiya, a city that remains under Gaddafi’s control, was littered with the “burnt out wreckage of what was Gaddafi’s armour and tanks,” Aljazeera correspondent Tony Birtley reported Monday. These soldiers were massacred by US jets as they retreated from Benghazi under a unilateral ceasefire decreed by Gaddafi but rejected by the US and its allies. It was Gaddafi’s second appeal for a ceasefire in three days.
The cruise missile attack on Bab al Azizia, reportedly carried out by the British, came almost 25 years after the Reagan administration’s April 1986 air strikes on the same compound, carried out in the name of fighting terrorism. In that bombing, dozens were killed, including Gaddafi’s adopted daughter.
In spite of efforts to portray the US role as secondary in the attack on Libya, Washington has assumed command over the operation. The US military has carried out the vast majority of cruise missile bombings, and on Sunday it conducted the majority of all sorties.
Three US B-2 stealth bombers have by themselves delivered 45 2,000-pound bombs, 90,000 pounds of ordinance in all, making the round-trip flight from their base in Missouri. The long-distance bombers have reportedly destroyed an airfield in Misrata, west of Tripoli. The US has so far fired 124 Tomahawk cruise missiles from naval vessels.
Italy, Spain, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Greece and Qatar have also participated in the military operations.
The White House and British Prime Minister David Cameron claim that the bombing campaign, “Odyssey Dawn,” has already crippled the Libyan air defense system, which was based largely on antiquated Soviet technology. “We essentially have a no-fly zone,” a White House spokesman told ABC News.
Yet even though a no-fly zone has already effectively been established, the Western powers have accelerated their missile strikes, exposing the lie that the operation’s sole purpose is to protect civilians.
In a state visit to Chile on Monday, Obama declared “it is US policy that Gaddafi has to go.” UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in an interview over the weekend that Gaddafi was a “legitimate target” of US and allied missiles and bombs.
The Western coalition has intervened in a civil war on the side of a rival faction of the Libyan elite based in Benghazi, whose forces are reportedly being armed by the Egyptian military [ALLY OF US IMPERIALISM]. After facing imminent defeat three days ago, rebel forces on Monday left Benghazi to attack neighboring cities controlled by Gaddafi’s troops. They advanced close to the city of Ajdabiya, Al Jazeera reported, but “retreated in disarray when they came under heavy fire from Gaddafi forces.”
Should the rebel forces march on Tripoli under Western air cover, the stage would very likely be set for a bloody confrontation. The commander of the operation, US Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, on Monday said that the coalition will now increase the size of the no-fly zone to target other cities, including Tripoli itself, where much of Libya’s air defenses are located. “It is likely we will encounter the regime’s mobile air defense systems… and will certainly attack them,” Ham declared.
International condemnation of the attacks mounted on Monday. The US, France and Britain, while operating under cover of the UN resolution, are acting outside of the official structures of NATO. Formal NATO participation has been blocked by Turkey, which opposes military action against the Gaddafi regime.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday condemned the operation as a “medieval call to crusade” and called the UN Security Council resolution allowing the attacks “defective and flawed.” Russia, along with China, Brazil, India and Germany, abstained from voting on the resolution, thus allowing the US, France and Britain a veneer of diplomatic legitimacy for the war of aggression.
Speaking at a meeting of the African Union, South African President Jacob Zuma said Monday his government opposed “the regime change doctrine and… the foreign occupation of Libya.”
Zuma was part of a high-profile African Union committee that had intended to travel to Tripoli to broker a peace deal between Gaddafi and the rebel forces. The US-led coalition refused to allow them to land, however.
India has called for an immediate cessation of air strikes, and China convened a United Nations Security Council meeting Monday to discuss Libya.
In Cairo, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was mobbed by dozens of people protesting the bombing campaign against Libya. Ban had intended to visit Tahrir Square on Monday, but the demonstration forced him back into the offices of the Arab League.
The coalition itself showed signs of fracture on Monday. Italy and Norway both protested the ad hoc character of the war, which has been dictated by the US, Britain and France. Norway said its jets will not participate until a NATO-controlled command structure is established.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini suggested that Italy may revoke the use of its military bases for action against Libya if NATO does not control the operation. Italy is Libya’s closest European neighbor and its bases are important for the military operation, although the UK, France and the US have launched air strikes from their own territories and from aircraft carriers off Libyan waters.
Italy, the former colonial power whose effort to pacify the region between 1913 and 1934 costs the lives of tens of thousands of Libyans, originally joined Germany in opposing military intervention, but fell in line after the Obama administration shifted to a war footing. Under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Italy forged close ties with Gaddafi and has the most extensive interests of the Western powers in Libya.
According to La Repubblica, Berlusconi said that Italy “could not risk to stand aside and only suffer the consequences of the decisions taken by others.” Italy is also requesting “a resolution demanding respect for commercial accords related to gas and oil,” according to the newspaper.
While Britain is also arguing that the operations should be placed under NATO command, France has opposed such a development. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Monday said at a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels that “within a few days NATO could come in to support” the bombing campaign.
Among the European powers, Germany has been the most critical of the bombing campaign. Foreign Secretary Guido Westerwelle reiterated this stance at the EU meeting in Brussels. “German soldiers will not be sent to Libya because we think this war carries real risks not only for Libya itself but for the region as a whole,” he said, while reiterating his government’s support for sanctions.
France ranks behind Italy and Germany among Libya’s trading partners. Britain places seventh after Turkey, and the US accounts for less than 6 percent of Libyan trade, roughly the same share as China.
In the US, the White House has faced tepid criticism from a handful of Republican and Democratic lawmakers for the unilateral use of the military force without congressional discussion, much less approval.
Obama administration officials have responded by insisting that they “consulted” with Congress prior to launching the attacks. “We take the consultative role very seriously,” a senior White House official said.
Gadhafi already sold his oil to Europe. If it was about oil the US/FRANCE etc. would simply allow Gadhafi to crush the rebels and go back to business as usual.
Check out Uhuru News for more news and analysis from an African Internationalist perspective.
Come hear Chairman Omali speak tonight (Tuesday, March 22nd) at the Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St, Oakland
http://apscuhuru.org/emails/oakland/oy_march_2011_monmarch21.html
Come hear Chairman Omali speak tonight (Tuesday, March 22nd) at the Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St, Oakland
http://apscuhuru.org/emails/oakland/oy_march_2011_monmarch21.html
For more information:
http://www.uhurunews.com
Your missing the point here. Yes Libya sells it's oil to Italy, France, etc. I get that. But what you miss is LIBYA is the exporter and 100% of the profit of it's export goes to LIBYA. If/When the Western Mafia powers get their hands on the oil, 90% of it's export profits will go outside, cause US and European corporations will be the exporters.
It's called Profit and money making. That's why we invade.
Get it!?
It's called Profit and money making. That's why we invade.
Get it!?
So why did the US invade Iraq? Was it because of the deep humanitarian regard that the US felt for the people there? It strikes me that the US only has these benevolent concerns in certain instances, such as with the Kurds in Iraq, and the rebels in Libya.
I don't recall hearing the US making any fuss about the bombing of Gaza. That was during the very end of the Bush presidency, and Obama, who was just about to acquire power, refused to comment on the matter, thus saving himself from the controversies surrounding the attack, which would entail accounting for his campaign support of Israel. Of course Obama never would have become president absent Israeli backing, and thus subsequent presidential criticism of Israel wouldn't and didn't follow. Libya is a whole different matter. Massacres are fine so long as they're done by those who support us.
I don't recall hearing the US making any fuss about the bombing of Gaza. That was during the very end of the Bush presidency, and Obama, who was just about to acquire power, refused to comment on the matter, thus saving himself from the controversies surrounding the attack, which would entail accounting for his campaign support of Israel. Of course Obama never would have become president absent Israeli backing, and thus subsequent presidential criticism of Israel wouldn't and didn't follow. Libya is a whole different matter. Massacres are fine so long as they're done by those who support us.
Responding to the previous Right wingers post of course the oil of Iraq wasn't literary stolen in the sense that it was all pumped into US Tankers . But the US now has their neo colonial flunkies in power. They will not oppose the US and Israel in any real way . And re the oil they have accepted the ''suggestions ''from US and UK oil corporations re pricing , distrubution etc.
And IF they ever rebel that's what the remaining occupation troops are for. At best ship out the Uppity Arabs to exile at Gunpoint . At worst take them out .
That's the way the US Govt. ''rolls'' !
And IF they ever rebel that's what the remaining occupation troops are for. At best ship out the Uppity Arabs to exile at Gunpoint . At worst take them out .
That's the way the US Govt. ''rolls'' !
With regard to the claim that intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn't involve oil, gaining control of the Central Asian energy corridor would seem to show otherwise. Plans for a oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea via Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea is the main prize behind the US’s seemingly futile military campaign in those countries.
As for Libya, with 46.5 billion barrels of proven reserves, (10 times those of Egypt), they are the largest oil economy in the African continent followed by Nigeria and Algeria (Oil and Gas Journal).
As for Libya, with 46.5 billion barrels of proven reserves, (10 times those of Egypt), they are the largest oil economy in the African continent followed by Nigeria and Algeria (Oil and Gas Journal).
Yasser Arafat disliked Qaddafi and called him "The Knight of Revolutionary Phrases".
it's gona take a revolution to stop this war. your permitted protest doesn't mean shit to the government. they don't listen to that. unless we shut down the city like we did in 2003 and keep shutting it down everyday until the u.s. army arrives, man, there's just no hope in stopping the u.s. war machine. oh, and for all you workers and students getting screwed out there while tax dollars go to fund the war, you can forget about change because no one is going to change it for you. if you want change so bad, why don't you do it your self with out asking permission. be the change you want to see and stop begging for your right to a free education. change comes from struggle and has nothing to do with voting. you just voted your self to get fuck't for another 4 years.
same shit
different asshole in the white house.
same shit
different asshole in the white house.
There's nothing 'humanitarian' about letting the U.S. imperialists, the greatest mass murderers and planet destroyers in history, get another foothold anywhere, and especially in a region that contains resources essential to their ongoing criminal enterprise.
For more information:
http://tiny.cc/indybay_aarons
To Konsider-- It aint about oil in Libya. If it was the US would have let Gaddhafi crush the rebels and return to business as usual.
To Anarchist-- The protest attracted all of 75 in the most anti-war city in the country. Maybe if they get real militant they can shutdown one of the alleys south of market.
To Anarchist-- The protest attracted all of 75 in the most anti-war city in the country. Maybe if they get real militant they can shutdown one of the alleys south of market.
It is extraordinary that 75 people managed to go to a protest of US oil imperialism on a rainy weekday at 5 p.m., when people are still at work or are working too far from the demonstration site to get there in time. The rain started again shortly before 6 p.m. on March 23, and the threat of rain is all this week, and it is also cold. The name of the game is always money and it is certainly about oil. The US wants control of the whole region's oil, directly. Khadaffy may be guilty of torture and that is horrifying, but Libya is a defenceless country when it comes to defeating US imperialism. It is civilians who are dying, hospitals that are being bombed. Please read the articles:
1. http://www.answercoalition.org/national/news/expose-us-fabrications-about-libya.html
Note the higher standard of living in Libya compared to most of the Middle East. Also note the dictatorship in the US:
I fully agree with the first contention that Qaddafi deliberately and callously remained in the highest office in Libya for too long and in those years should have helped build a formal representative system, albeit a bourgeois and at the service of the privileged classes. But again in the U.S., the oldest capitalist democracy in the world, two families, Bushies and the Clintonites have occupied the presidential office for at least 24 years and the seats in the Senate and House of Representatives have practically become hereditary. From those who have objection to Qaddafi’s long rule, I would ask how many times they have tried to oust the senators and congresspersons who enter the highest offices riding on million-dollar checks of the private financial corporations?
As you may know by now, the cost of two candidates running for the presidential election of 2012 is estimated at more than $2 billion. Under this so-called representative method, the financial institutions such as Bank of America Corporation, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & company, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and Morgan Stanley and, not to mention, the military industrial complex will decide who the next president will be. For your information the following senators: Daniel Inouye (D), Patrick Leahy (D), Richard Lugar (R), Orrin Hatch (R), Max Baucus (D), Thad Cochran (R), and Chuck Grassely (R), have been in the U.S. Senate more than 30 years and less than 49 years. Some of us may be comfortable with this method of representation.
2. World Socialist Website:
The articles cited above plus:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/liby-m24.shtml
And as a reminder of the need to vote only Peace & Freedom or Green:
Pelosi and Boxer, proud millionaire Democrats, support the bombing of Libya. See
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/24/MNRT1II30A.DTL&tsp=1
For more on Peace & Freedom, see
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
and on the Green Party, see
http://www.cagreens.org/
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=404
1. http://www.answercoalition.org/national/news/expose-us-fabrications-about-libya.html
Note the higher standard of living in Libya compared to most of the Middle East. Also note the dictatorship in the US:
I fully agree with the first contention that Qaddafi deliberately and callously remained in the highest office in Libya for too long and in those years should have helped build a formal representative system, albeit a bourgeois and at the service of the privileged classes. But again in the U.S., the oldest capitalist democracy in the world, two families, Bushies and the Clintonites have occupied the presidential office for at least 24 years and the seats in the Senate and House of Representatives have practically become hereditary. From those who have objection to Qaddafi’s long rule, I would ask how many times they have tried to oust the senators and congresspersons who enter the highest offices riding on million-dollar checks of the private financial corporations?
As you may know by now, the cost of two candidates running for the presidential election of 2012 is estimated at more than $2 billion. Under this so-called representative method, the financial institutions such as Bank of America Corporation, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & company, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and Morgan Stanley and, not to mention, the military industrial complex will decide who the next president will be. For your information the following senators: Daniel Inouye (D), Patrick Leahy (D), Richard Lugar (R), Orrin Hatch (R), Max Baucus (D), Thad Cochran (R), and Chuck Grassely (R), have been in the U.S. Senate more than 30 years and less than 49 years. Some of us may be comfortable with this method of representation.
2. World Socialist Website:
The articles cited above plus:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/liby-m24.shtml
And as a reminder of the need to vote only Peace & Freedom or Green:
Pelosi and Boxer, proud millionaire Democrats, support the bombing of Libya. See
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/24/MNRT1II30A.DTL&tsp=1
For more on Peace & Freedom, see
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
and on the Green Party, see
http://www.cagreens.org/
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=404
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