OntheWilderSide

(excerpt from) CommonDreams.org
Libya: A War We Shouldn’t Believe In
by Ted Rall /March 22, 2011

U.S. forces fired 110 cruise missiles at Libya on the first day of the war. Each one cost $755,000 to build; $2.8 million to transport, maintain and shoot. Austerity and budget cuts abound; there’s no money for NPR or teachers or firefighters. Note to union negotiators: the government has lots of money. They’re spending it on war.

For people too young to remember Bosnia, this is what a violent, aggressive, militarist empire looks like under a Democratic president. Where Bush rushed, Obama moseys. No one believed ex-oil man Bush when he said he was out to get rid of the evil dictator of an oil-producing state; Obama, the former community organizer, gets a pass under identical circumstances. Over the weekend, also the eighth anniversary of the start of the Iraq quagmire, there were few protests against Obama’s Libya War, all poorly attended.

I spent the weekend in New York at LeftForum, an annual gathering of anti-capitalist intellectuals. “What do you think about Libya?” people kept asking. What passes for the Left is ambivalent…

Ted Rall’s whole piece is well worth the read. He answers the questions:

1. Whom are we helping?

2. Does Qadafi have the right to defend himself?

3. What about self-determination?

4. Why are we OK with some dictators, but not others?

5. Is Libya our geostrategic business?

 

Filed under: Anti-War, international politics, News, politics, progressive politics, US Politics, war Tagged: | Ghadafi, Libya, Obama, Qadafi, war in Libya, What is happening in Libya, Why are we in Libya