i like your comments. i wish i could say with absolute certainty what was the proper path to take in libya. i can't, and you sum up much of the dilemma for me.
i have read what seems to be much better reporting on libya in the french press, Liberation and Le Monde, than in the american press. even the brits are better. they have people closer to the ground, reporting on what they see. it is, of course, from only one side of the line, and how they are to get anything accurate from the ghaddafi side while subject to restraints on their access is hard to imagine.
my impression is that al jazeera also does a decent job.
we are necessarily stuck her on the sideline, waiting to hear from others, hoping they can inform us.
and so much of what seems true today turns out to have been nonsense tomorrow....
ken
On 6/24/11 11:32 PM, Pablo Idahosa wrote:
Ken, I also saw the piece this morning, which, among other things, pointed to the fictitious Viagra-induced rapes, as well as the bogus evidence of genocidal intent, which formed the basis for intervention in the first place. The sullied basis for humanitarian intervention that, after being ratcheted up by legitimating (if you have the stomach, look at some of the ghoulish videos of the liberators of Libya) attacking and butchering sub-Saharan African migrants as mercenaries, went onto sanitize everything that the rebels did. The report goes onto to say that throughout the early days of the uprising, Ghadaffi's forces did shoot and kill demonstrators, demonstrating his well known capacity for brutality, but that there is no proof of mass killing of civilians or that heavy weapons were ever used against crowds on the scale of Syria or Yemen, and that there was no evidence of genocidal intent. The report goes onto say "that much Western media coverage has from the outset presented a very one-sided view of the logic of events, portraying the protest movement as entirely peaceful and repeatedly suggesting that the regime's security forces were unaccountably massacring unarmed demonstrators who presented no security challenge ."
It is, indeed, hard to stand on the side while people get killed, regardless where they are from, and especially against rulers whom we do not like. However, surely part of what we do (or should do ) is to not act as cheerleaders for what is clearly propaganda, sometimes of absurd proportions, for and by people who have at best given lip service for democracy in other places. Further, we can might misgivings about institutions and their procedures relating to their historic record of brokering peace, but we nonetheless should give them a chance rather than asking NATO to broker only destruction and regime change.
Pablo
On 24/06/11 7:20 AM, kenneth harrow wrote:in today's Le Monde there is an important article citing the amnesty international researcher donatella rovera. she investigated the claims about "african," i .e., subsaharan black african mercenaries paid to fight for ghaddafi. her conclusion was that that claim is very largely overstated, more of a propaganda claim than one based on any substantial evidence. those who had been held by the rebels on those grounds were gradually released on the basis that they were recruited workers, not fighters. and there is a report of such an individual being maltreated and hung, and 5 chadians being set on fire in benghazi.
there have been expressions of concern about human rights abuses from the un council of human rights (french representative mattei). racist sentiments were apparently inflamed. apparently both sides have used sentiments against subsaharan workers, identified by their skin color and national origin.
ken
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-- kenneth w. harrow distinguished professor of english michigan state university department of english east lansing, mi 48824-1036 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
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