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Britain has used helicopters overnight to attack strategic targets in Libya….the whole thing sounds like we are at war to me.
Its one thing for the people to lead a popular uprising quite another for a country like ourselves to step in in this way. I wonder if the country were not oil rich would we be there? I dont feel at ease with whats now happening, is it just me???
I actually cannot grasp the need for anyone to be there.. Gadaffi is a democratically voted President. What i have read in non political press is the fact of the things he has did for Libya.To make it a better place. This was a knock on effect from Rebellions, for every “rebel” there are 2 folks Happy with what life served them.
so no. Mrs T , you are not alone in your baffledment.. its as ridulous as the entire peoples front of some Monty pythonesque wee City, bombing Britain as they did not like Dave’s tie..
Oil always helps though.. and the USA.. well, need i say more ?
I didn’t think he was democratically voted president. He became president as a result of rebellion, he suppressed internal dissidence and ordered state-sponsored terrorism, he has ordered assassinations of critics around the world (25 listed by Amnesty International), meantime he has creamed off the wealth of the nation for himself and his family. Other Arab nations want nothing to do with him.
His people are rebelling against him, his staff are resigning and/or defecting in protest at his heavy-handiness and willingness to kill his own people, yet still he continued.
I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand I would hate the world stand by and watch a despot massacre his own people and do nothing about it – images of the Yugoslavian conflict are still stark in my mind; a time of genocide when the world stood by and watched, then swore they would not let it happen again. On the other hand I feel that our involvement has overstepped the mark of what is appropriate; it seems to have gone beyond “protecting civilians”, with some of the acts being justified in such tenuous terms that I don’t think anyone can really believe it’s just about that any longer.
Damned if you get involved, damned if you don’t.
If the other Arab countries want nothing to do with him why dont they take the lead in defending Arab civilians?
I find it difficult to understand why we are taking the lead in this. We no longer have the resource to police the world and we should learn to take a back seat on these occasions.
Whilst I support the people of Libya in their uprising against the tyrannical despot Ghaddafi, I would like to ask NATO, the internation community, etc, why they haven’t aided the rebellions in Zimbabwe, to overthrow Mugabe.
@mrs_teapot wrote:
If the other Arab countries want nothing to do with him why dont they take the lead in defending Arab civilians?
I find it difficult to understand why we are taking the lead in this. We no longer have the resource to police the world and we should learn to take a back seat on these occasions.
Since so many of the Arab countries have their own issues at the moment I guess they’re sorting out their own problems and leaving Libya to it, as long as it isn’t a threat to them and doesn’t have a direct impact on them then they won’t get involved.
I guess it would also be difficult for a neighbouring country, say Egypt for example, to step in as they could then be accused of orchestrating the uprising for their own aims, possibly resulting in a war between the two countries rather than a peaceful resolution. Not that we seem to be doing any better in bringing about a peaceful resolution, but then I don’t think that would be possible with Gaddafi, he has said he will not leave the country and is prepared to die a martyr.
Someone has to take the lead, if no-one else does and everyone turns a blind eye then what happens? Whichever nation takes the lead, their people will be saying “why us?”.
@jen_jen wrote:
I didn’t think he was democratically voted president. He became president as a result of rebellion, he suppressed internal dissidence and ordered state-sponsored terrorism, he has ordered assassinations of critics around the world (25 listed by Amnesty International), meantime he has creamed off the wealth of the nation for himself and his family. Other Arab nations want nothing to do with him.
His people are rebelling against him, his staff are resigning and/or defecting in protest at his heavy-handiness and willingness to kill his own people, yet still he continued.
I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand I would hate the world stand by and watch a despot massacre his own people and do nothing about it – images of the Yugoslavian conflict are still stark in my mind; a time of genocide when the world stood by and watched, then swore they would not let it happen again. On the other hand I feel that our involvement has overstepped the mark of what is appropriate; it seems to have gone beyond “protecting civilians”, with some of the acts being justified in such tenuous terms that I don’t think anyone can really believe it’s just about that any longer.
Damned if you get involved, damned if you don’t.
Very true.
We are clearly pushing the limits of “protecting civilians” and carrying out thinly veiled attacks on the Gadaffi regime. This from the party who went on and on about Tony Blair’s illegitimate war with Iraq.
I just get concerned about the fact that we choose to get involved to try to prevent some massacres, but stand by looking at our feet while hundreds or even thousands die at other times.
What message do we send to the rest of the world? Are we good guys defending vulnerable people or just hard-hearted thugs looking after our own interests and killing people to do it?
I do understand the reasons we are there, Libya asked for international help. Gaddafi openly said he was going to go through Benghazi and kill everyone he thought had been involved, openly suggesting mass genocide.
So yes there needed to be some intervention, my concern is why are we taking such a high profile part in the intervention?
No, we should not turn a blind eye when people ask for help but neither should their neighbours and whilst ever we volunteer to lead on things like this other countries will sit back and let us…. gosh makes me so mad. Rant over :D
Gadaffi used to fund the IRA. That’s good enough reason for me to support a war against Libya.
I find it interesting how we’ve chosen to fight this war though, not with our own soldiers, but with Libyan ‘rebels’ (and I dare say a few covert mercernaries thrown in for good measure) simply providing them with air and naval bombardment support.
We are way too over-stretched to mount a full scale war, but just by bombing and shelling the crap out of them and slipping the rebels some supplies, we are effectively at war, and will win, without British loss of life.
I say this is a good thing, plus it emphasises the importance of a strong navy and airforce hence Cameron’s u-turn on scrapping our entire navy! Mr. “We don’t need a navy in the modern age” – then a month later it kicks off in Libya. Ohh I bet he felt a right tit.
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