[Peace-discuss] Statement about ongoing War in Libya from Solidarity with Democratic Movements

[C. G. Estabrook]

A good statement. Perhaps AWARE should endorse it publicly?


On 5/22/11 4:08 PM, Karen Medina wrote:
> [Here is a statement about the ongoing war in Libya from the local
> group, Solidarity with Democratic Movements. -karen medina]
>
> Solidarity with Democratic Movements: Statement on Libya
> SDM Statement on Intervention in Libya
> As a group (as our name would imply) in solidarity with democratic
> movements, we were heartened by the initial uprising against the
> regime of Muammar Ghaddafi in cities around Libya, beginning on
> February 27. These protests were directly inspired by the struggles
> for liberation in Tunisia and Egypt that successfully overthrew hated
> long-ruling autocrats in those countries.
> One important feature of those rebellions is that they overthrew
> client regimes of the United States and other Western powers, which
> sponsored the repression and immiseration of millions of people in
> those countries. Until just days before the fall of the Ben Ali and
> Mubarak regimes, these powers continued to support the status quo. But
> now, those same Western powers, selectively invoking their
> “Responsibility to Protect”, have decided to intervene militarily
> against the Ghaddafi regime, under the guise of saving the lives of
> civilians in Benghazi. Instead, what we have seen is a civil war with
> no end in sight, in which hundreds of civilians have been killed both
> by Ghaddafi’s forces and NATO bombs.
> By definition, in a popular democratic revolution, the millions who
> are struggling for change are the ones to determine the strategy for
> their own liberation. This feature of the Egyptian and Tunisian
> revolutions has been all but eliminated in Libya. Increasingly,
> military and political decisions are being made in Pentagon and NATO
> boardrooms, as well as European capitals. For example, even prior to
> passage of UN Resolution 1973, the United States received guarantees
> from the Transitional National Council (TNC), the official leadership
> of the Libyan rebels, that all existing energy contracts made under
> Ghaddafi’s government would be honored. Meanwhile, former members of
> the Ghaddafi regime as well as U.S. and European clients have gained a
> more prominent role in the rebel leadership. For example, Khalifa
> Heftir, a CIA asset who had been living in Virginia since 1990, has
> now become one of the most important rebel military commanders.
> Anyone in favor of real democracy in the Arab world, however, cannot
> see Libya in isolation from the revolutionary uprisings elsewhere in
> the region. At the very moment that the United States and NATO were
> invoking their “responsibility to protect” the people of Libya, the
> U.S. gave the green light to Saudi Arabia to crush the democratic
> uprising in Bahrain, which houses the U.S.’s fifth naval fleet. In
> exchange, Saudi Arabia guaranteed that the Arab League would support
> the Libyan invasion.
> Having lost two key allies (Mubarak and Ben Ali) in the Arab world,
> the United States and its friends in the west are not willing to see
> lofty ideals such as democracy stand in the way of their strategic
> interests. The invasion of Libya, regardless of any humanitarian
> facade, is a way of maintaining a foothold in a region that has seen
> two popular revolutions. The question for the coming years is who will
> shape the destiny of the Arab world. Will it be with the United States
> and its client states, or will it be the vast majority of the people?
> Solidarity with Democratic Movements stands with the latter.
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss