- Masquerading as "humanitarian intervention,"
Washington launched full-force barbarism on six million Libyans, all endangered
by America's latest intervention. More on how below.
-
- Beginning March 19, it was visible. However, months of
planning preceded it, including US and UK special forces and intelligence
operatives on the ground enlisting, inciting, funding, arming and supporting
violent insurrection to oust Gaddafi and replace him with a Washington-controlled
puppet like in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
-
- The scrip is familiar, playing out now in Libya - full-scale
"imperial barbarism," a term James Petras used in a September
2010 article titled, "Imperialism and Imperial Barbarism," saying:
-
- "The organizing principle of imperial barbarism
is the idea of total war," including:
-
- -- use of mass destruction weapons, unleashed on Libya
as explained below;
-
- -- targeting the entire country and society; and
-
- -- dismantling "the entire civil and military apparatus
of the state," replacing it with "colonial officials, paid mercenaries
and unscrupulous and corrupt satraps" - puppets, figures As'ad AbuKhalil
calls "useful idiots."
-
- Moreover, as Petras explains:
-
- "The entire modern professional class is targeted
(and) replaced by retrograde religious-ethnic clans and gangs, susceptible
to bribes and booty-shares. All existing modern civil society organizations
are pulverized and replaced by crony-plunderers linked to the colonial
regime. The entire economy is" disrupted by "shock and awe"
bombings and ground attacks, affecting essential civilian infrastructure
on the pretext of destroying military and "dual use" targets.
-
- As a result, mass casualties follow, many post-conflict
from disease, homelessness, starvation, depravation, and environmental
contamination. All wars are ugly, especially modern ones Washington wages,
unleashing full force human and overall destruction, mostly affecting noncombatant
men, women and children - imperialism's hidden victims.
-
- Already, unknown hundreds of Libyans have been killed,
wounded, or disabled, besides countless numbers affected overall. Expect
much worse ahead, including violent, US-backed proxy insurgence, perhaps
later joined by Pentagon troops if current air and ground attacks don't
accomplish "Operation Odyssey Dawn's" objectives.
-
- UN Resolution 1973
-
- Claiming authority under the UN Charter's Article VII,
it, in fact, violates Article 51, stating:
-
- "Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the
inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack
occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council
has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.
Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defense
shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in
any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council
under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary
in order to maintain or restore international peace and security."
-
- Effectively, UN Resolution 1973 authorized war, not peace.
Moreover, it denied a sitting government, despotic or otherwise, the right
of self-defense. A Western-backed insurgency initiated attacks, permitting
a head of state to respond.
-
- Further, the UN Charter explains under what conditions
intervention, violence and coercion are justified. None exist in Libya.
-
- In addition, Article 2(3) and Article 33(1) require peaceful
settlement of international disputes, not "shock and awe" attacks.
Article 2(4), in fact, prohibits force or its threatened use, including
no-fly zones that are acts of war.
-
- Further, Articles 2(3), 2(4), and 33 absolutely prohibit
any unilateral or other external threat or use of force not specifically
allowed under Article 51 or otherwise authorized by the Security Council
- that may not violate its own Charter. In fact, Washington bullied enough
members to do so, planning naked aggression in response.
-
- Ostensibly to protect civilians, Resolution 1973's paragraph
4 authorized Member States "to take all necessary measures...."
As a result, a giant interventionist loophole was created they knew Washington
would exploit.
-
- Under paragraph 6, moreover, "establish(ing) a ban
on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in order to
help protect civilians," in fact, harms them by US "shock and
awe" attacks.
-
- Further, paragraph 7's authorization for "flights
whose sole purpose is humanitarian" denies them because Pentagon-controlled
airspace will destroy any encountered Libyan aircraft, claiming it hostile,
not delivering food, medical or other essential supplies or personnel.
-
- In addition, supplying insurgents with weapons and munitions
violates paragraph 13, "Call(ing) upon Member States, in particular
States of the region, acting nationally or through regional organisations
or arrangements, in order to ensure strict implementation of the arms embargo
established by paragraphs 9 and 10 of resolution 1970 (2011), to inspect
in their territory, including seaports and airports, and on the high seas,
vessels and aircraft bound to or from" Libya.
-
- In fact, besides covertly supplying its own weapons,
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and perhaps other regional and/or NATO countries are
arming insurgents, at the behest of Washington - violating Resolution 1973.
-
- As a result, Libyans are at the mercy of US imperial
aggression, disdaining all international laws, principles and standards.
At war, Washington causes mass casualties and destruction. Now begun, expect
much more ahead.
-
- In addition, "coalition" participation is fig
leaf cover for US aggression. AFRICOM's General Carter Ham has full command
authority, directing UK, French and other belligerent partners, besides
America's full air, sea and ground might.
-
- Expect protracted conflict, perhaps "boots on the
ground," putting a lie to Obama's promise for "humanitarian intervention"
to end in "a matter of days, not weeks." Already, insurgency
has been ongoing for weeks, perhaps months covertly, the worst yet to come,
but already conditions are bad. They always are when Washington arrives.
-
- Weapons of Mass Destruction Used
-
- Since the 1991 Gulf War, Washington used nuclear weapons
covertly - in depleted uranium (DU) form. Contaminating exposure is deadly.
All US missiles, bombs, and shells have solid DU projectiles or warheads
in them. Even bullets because in all forms, DU-tipped munitions easily
penetrate armor, irradiating air, ground and water when used. DU, in fact,
painfully kills from later contracted illnesses and diseases, including
cancer and many others.
-
- When weaponized DU strikes, it penetrates deeply, aerosolizing
into a fine spray which then contaminates wide areas. Moreover, its residue
is permanent. Its microscopic/submicroscopic particles remain suspended
in air or swept into it from contaminated soil.
-
- Atmospheric winds then carry it far distances as a radioactive
component of atmospheric dust, falling indiscriminately to earth and water.
Virtually every known illness and disease may result from severe headaches,
muscle pain and general fatigue, to major birth defects, infection, depression,
cardiovascular disease, many types of cancer and brain tumors. As a result,
permanent disability or death may follow.
-
- Moreover, DU use is illegal under international law.
Although no specific convention or treaty bans radioactive weapons, including
DU, they're, in fact, illegal de facto and de jure under the Hague Convention
of 1907, prohibiting use of any "poison or poisoned weapons."
-
- In all forms, DU is radioactive and chemically toxic,
thus fitting the definition of poisonous weapons Hague banned. America
is a signatory. As a result, DU weapons use for any purpose violates international
law. Moreover, all DU weapons meet the U.S. federal code WMD definition
in 2 out of 3 categories:
-
- The US CODE, TITLE 50, CHAPTER 40, SECTION 2302 defines
a Weapon of Mass Destruction as follows:
-
- "The term 'weapon of mass destruction' means any
weapon or device that is intended, or has the capability, to cause death
or serious bodily injury to a significant number of people through the
release, dissemination, or impact of (A) toxic or poisonous chemicals or
their precursors, (B) a disease organism, or (C) radiation or radioactivity."
-
- As a result, commanders up the chain of command, including
civilian ones to the highest level, authorizing DU weapons use for any
purpose are war criminals.
-
- Moreover, under various UN Conventions and Covenants,
weapons causing post-battle environmental or human harm are banned. Nonetheless,
Washington uses them indiscriminately, including DU. As a result, millions
of Iraqi, Serbian/Kosovar, and Afghan nationals, as well as belligerent
US troops have been gravely harmed, yet Pentagon and administration authorities
deny all responsibility.
-
- Libyans will now be victimized by DU poisoning. Wherever
it strikes and spreads, it's unforgiving, disabling and deadly. If enough
is used, a future cancer epidemic will follow, too late to help those harmed.
-
- Helen Caldicott calls radiation a "Destroyer of
Worlds," doing it by killing people silently, painfully, illegally,
and at times genocidally.
-
- In 2005, before his death, no wonder Nobel laureate Harold
Pinter condemned US aggression saying:
-
- "(T)he United States no longer bothers about low
intensity conflict. It no longer sees any point in being reticent or even
devious......It quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations,
international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and
irrelevant."
-
- Under Bush, Obama or anyone else, it does what it pleases
- the law, human welfare, and environmental considerations be damned.
-
- A Final Comment
-
- On March 21, Reuters said missile and air attacks on
Libya continue. The New York Times headlined, "Allies Target Qaddafi's
Ground Forces, but Resistance Continues (unconfirmed) Reports Say."
The Washington Post said, "Libyan rebels launch offensive; coalition
pounds Gaddafi forces," that may be observing a ceasefire. Al Jazeera
reported "Rejoicing in Libya's Benghazi," continuing its biased
war reporting, siding with anti-Gaddafi forces.
-
- In contrast, independent web sites, analysts, and on-air
programming offer detailed, truthful information, including the Progressive
Radio News Hour this writer hosts on the Progressive Radio Network.com,
featuring distinguished guests, dominant media sources spurn.
-
- Middle East/Central Asian analyst Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
is one of many reliable sources. On March 20, his Global Research.ca article
headlined, "BREAKING NEWS: Libyan Sources Report Italian POWs Captured.
Additional Coalition Jets Downed. Qatar has joined the War," saying:
-
- -- unconfirmed "(i)nternal Libyan sources reported....the
capture of an Italian vessel and military personnel, who were detained;"
-
- -- Gaddafi's government "started supplying (Libyans)
with food rations, medicine, and weapons to defend themselves;"
-
- -- unconfirmed "Libyan sources reported" downing
two more "coalition" jets, "identified as Qatari military
planes;" and
-
- -- unconfirmed Libyan sources claim five "coalition"
jets downed, three attacking Tripoli, two others over Sirt.
-
- March 22 marks day four of a protracted conflict. It's
certain to cause widespread deaths, injuries, disabilities and destruction.
It's assured when America arrives - on cruise missiles, bombs and shells,
not white horses promoting peace and democratic values, what all US administrations
disdain.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
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