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We need arguments on hand for people who think that the NATO/US
bombardment of Libya was a good idea, done for humanitarian reasons,
and that we should <a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/french-philosopher-bernardhenri-lvy-calls-for-west-to-intervene-in-syria-7788822.html">now
do likewise in Syria</a>. Even at last week's anti-NATO
demonstration in Chicago, I saw several people carrying signs
cheering on the NATO win against Qaddafi.<br>
<br>
Bernard-Henri Lévy has a film in Cannes, The Oath of Torbruck (Le
Serment de Torbrouck), about Lévy's own visit to Libya, meeting with
rebel leaders, and convincing Sarkozy that France needed to
intervene for humanitarian etc., apparently. The trailer makes it
look like war porn:<br>
<a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E37jv8aisw&feature=share">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E37jv8aisw&feature=share</a><br>
<br>
<br>
A recent posting to the United for Peace and Justice list by Kevin
Zeese brought up this article from Chris Floyd from earlier this
spring:<br>
<a
href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2229-fools-rush-in-april-prank-launches-next-american-war.html">http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2229-fools-rush-in-april-prank-launches-next-american-war.html</a><br>
<br>
an excerpt below, but please see the full article too, where Floyd
goes on to say what he thinks motivates these wars in the first
place.<br>
<br>
The self-proclaimed "Friends of Syria" group has now undertaken to
pay the salaries of the "Free Syrian Army" and supply the rebel
forces, led largely by Islamist factions -- although Western leaders
and their parrot-like media still pretend (at least in public) that
the armed uprising is aimed at establishing a groovy secular
showcase of pluralistic democracy. The fact that sectarian Sunni
factions have seized control of the initially unarmed (and largely
secular) protests and are now set on a course of "ethnic cleansing"
of the Alawite minority, from which much of the regime's ruling
class is drawn is, of course, ignored or downplayed by the
ubiquitous cheerleaders for Permanent War in our militarist
media-political class. To be sure, Alawites are not the only
targets; all other "minorities" -- i.e., anyone, including fellow
Sunnis, who do not agree with the sectarians' narrow notions -- are
also in the cross-hairs of the sectarians as well.<br>
<br>
Just before Hillary and the other April Fools played their deadly
prank -- a move absolutely guaranteed to lead to more violence and
bloodshed -- one of the leading lights of the initial peaceful
protests spoke out against the militarization of the resistance to
the odious state regime. As AFP reports:<br>
<br>
Fadwa Suleiman, an actress who became an icon of Syria's revolution,
is furious that her country's peaceful protest movement has been
drawn into armed conflict with the regime. She said she is saddened
to see that "the revolution is not going in the right direction,
that it is becoming armed, that the opposition which wanted to
resist peacefully is playing the game of the regime and that the
country is heading for sectarian war".<br>
<br>
…Suleiman became a high-profile member of the opposition movement
last November when she appeared in footage from the rebel city of
Homs that was broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television news network.<br>
<br>
The 39-year-old actress, well known in her homeland for her work in
theatre, films and television, belongs to the same Alawite religious
minority as President Bashar al-Assad. She says that a major reason
for her participation in the protests was to do her bit to stop any
slide into a sectarian war between factions of the Sunni Muslim
majority, Alawites or Christians.<br>
<br>
…And that is why she is furious that those "who are arming the
Syrian street are willing to do anything to take power in the same
way that Bashar Al-Aaasad is ready to do anything to stay in power."<br>
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