[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [ufpj-activist] The UN Security Council Has Not Authorized RegimeChange in Libya

Sat Mar 19 12:19:16 CDT 2011

Here is a message from my home town, with which I am in sympathy, and which bears spreading.  --mkb

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Henry Lowendorf <grnhpeacecouncil at gmail.com>
> Date: March 19, 2011 7:27:13 AM CDT
> To: Ellie Ommani <ellieomm at optonline.net>, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>, ufpj-activist <ufpj-activist at lists.mayfirst.org>
> Cc: wespac_mid-east at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [ufpj-activist] The UN Security Council Has Not Authorized RegimeChange in Libya
> 
> If one has paid attention to the trajectory of imperialism over the last 66 years it is clear that the U.S. government and its European allies show little concern for human rights or human life. For Secretary Clinton and President Obama to decry the loss of civilian life in Libya in light of what the U.S. and NATO are doing in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq is beyond hypocrisy.
> 
> There is in Libya today a civil war and the U.S. and its CIA have played a role on both sides.  Gaddafi has worked with the CIA against Al Qaida perhaps leading to his charge that Al Qaida is responsible for the opposition. The CIA or its variants have sponsored some Libyan opposition groups.  Gaddafi's support of ultra left and revolutionary movements in the past and his government's spreading some of the great wealth created by oil were accompanied with suppression of democratic rights of the Libyan people. Gaddafi's current violent attacks on his own people have confused many in the peace movement. And because of the militarization of our society and so much of the world, we are left with very few instruments and almost no discussion on how to prevent or resist such violence except by the imposition of more military, that is more violence.
> 
> Peace forces must remember that U.S. and European imperialism and their military arm NATO do not have have a humanitarian purpose. They intend to control the people, resources, markets and geography of the entire planet, softly or brutally, whatever it takes.
> 
> Any limits that appear to exist in the Security Council decision to allow international - read NATO - intervention in Libya, there is no practical way to enforce them. The U.S. and NATO now have the cover of the UN and will move to regime change or engineer whatever Hell they want, legalities be damned.
> 
> No one in the peace movement should celebrate the Security Council decision.
> 
> - Henry -
> 
> Peace /\ Justice
> 
> Henry Lowendorf
> Greater New Haven Peace Council
> PO Box 3105
> New Haven, CT  06515-0205
> 203-389-9547
> grnhpeacecouncil at gmail.com
> 
> 
>  
> At 3:42 PM -0400 2011.3.18, Ellie Ommani wrote:
>> Dear Robert,
>>  
>> I have one and only one question:  Why hasn't the United States raised a finger to the UN Security Council about the blatant invasion by Saudi Arabia and the GCC troops into Bahrain, shooting and killing completely unarmed and peaceful Bahraini Citizens, and now terrorizing the civilian population in villages and smaller towns near Manara?
>>  
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9W_-0uGN1E  worse than usual!
>> May I posit a rhetorical answer to my own question:  Might it be because the United States already has its full economic and military and political base in Bahrain?
>>  
>> To apologize for the system of imperialism is a shame on the progressive movement in this country. 
>>  
>> Ellie Ommani, Co-founder, American Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC)
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Robert Naiman
>> To: ufpj-activist
>> Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 2:35 PM
>> Subject: [ufpj-activist] The UN Security Council Has Not Authorized RegimeChange in Libya
>> 
>> http://my.firedoglake.com/robertnaiman/2011/03/18/the-un-security-council-has-not-authorized-regime-change-in-libya/
>> The UN Security Council Has Not Authorized Regime Change in Libya
>> By: Robert Naiman Friday March 18, 2011 10:30 am
>> 
>> Tweet 
>> 
>>  
>> It's a great thing that the Obama Administration has resisted calls for unilateral U.S. military action in Libya, and instead is working through the United Nations Security Council, as it is required to do by the United Nations Charter.
>> Now, the Administration needs to follow through on this commitment to international law by ensuring that foreign military intervention remains within the four corners of what the UN Security Council has approved. If it does not, and instead Western powers take the view that we now have a blank check to do whatever we want, the certain consequence will be that it will be much more difficult to achieve Security Council action in a similar situation in the future, and those who complain that the Security Council is too cautious will have only themselves to blame.
>> Some of the reporting on the Security Council resolution has been misleading. The Security Council has not authorized military action for any purpose. The Security Council has authorized military action necessary to protect civilians. It has not authorized military action to overthrow the Libyan government. Clearly, some people do want foreign military action to assist in the overthrow of the Libyan government, but such action has not been approved by the Security Council.
>> The text of the UN Security Council resolution can be found here.
>> Here is the first action item:
>> 1. Demands the immediate establishment of a cease-fire and a complete end to violence and all attacks against, and abuses of, civilians;
>> The Libyan government has announced a cease-fire. It is certainly true, as Western leaders have noted, that announcing a cease-fire is not at all the same thing as implementing one. But before Western military forces start bombing Libya, efforts to achieve a cease-fire must be exhausted. To do otherwise would be to make a mockery of the Security Council.
>> It is crucial that the goal of protecting civilians, which the Security Council has endorsed, and the goal of overthrowing the Libyan government, which it has most certainly not endorsed, be kept distinct. There is a clear effort by some actors - especially the French government - to conflate these goals:
>> Earlier François Baroin, a French government spokesman, told RTL radio that action would come "rapidly," perhaps within hours, after the United Nations resolution authorized "all necessary measures" to protect civilians.
>> But he insisted the military action was "not an occupation of Libyan territory." Rather, he said, it was intended to protect the Libyan people and "allow them to go all the way in their drive, which means bringing down the Qaddafi regime." [my emphasis].
>> There is no doubt that some actors want a foreign military intervention to assist in the overthrow of the Libyan government. But there should also be no doubt that this goal has never been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council. Any foreign military action beyond what is necessary to protect civilians would be a military action that was not approved by the Security Council, and therefore, would be a military action that violates the United Nations Charter. Any foreign military action outside the framework of the UN resolution - in particular, any action that kills civilians - will be prosecutable as a war crime.
>> Robert Naiman is Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy.
>> 
>> --
>> Robert Naiman
>> Policy Director
>> Just Foreign Policy
>> www.justforeignpolicy.org
>> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
>>  
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