by Jim Fetzer (and Christof Lehmann)
NATO bombing in Tripoli, Libya
One of the great virtues of Veterans Today appears to be that diverse opinions about the most important issues that confront us are welcomed with respect as long as they are well-reasoned and responsible. I have been dismayed by the support for NATO’s intervention in Libya from some of our most significant contributors, which has led me to conduct interviews and additional research about what is going on there. That the first act of this “rebel uprising” was to found a new central bank told me that something very strange was taking place. That NATO, which was founded as a collective defensive alliance to respond to an invasion of Europe by the USSR, has been involved in the bombing of civilians in a nation that has not attacked any other, has stunned me.
Ghadafi has brought Libya a national health care system, public education and funding for attending college, sharing oil revenues with the Libyan people and the highest standard of living in Africa. Every Libyian has an inalienable right to have a home. If appropriate training and eduction was not offered in Libya, stipends are granted for studying abroad. Every newly wedded couple receives up to $50,000US to start their own family. Ghadafi promised that his own parents would not have their own home until the rest of the people had theirs–and he kept that promise. The adult literacy rate in Lybia was on the order of 89% in 2009, 94% for males and 83% for females. 99.9% of its youth are literate, according to the U.N. To the extent to which he qualifies as a “dictator”, he appears to be an unusually benevolent one.
But he has also abandoned the petro-dollar and plans to place Libyan currency on a new gold standard, which the world’s banking cartel has opposed, which appears to be the real reason NATO has been bombing his nation and massacring tens of thousands of its citizens. From interviews I have done with Ellen Brown and others, I am convinced that the attack on Libya has nothing to do with freedom and democracy and everything to do with the independence of Libya from the international banking system, which is capped by the Bank of International Settlements as “to top of the pyramid” of the New World Order. That is my take on this, where the parallels with Iraq are disturbing.
Like Ghadafi, Saddam Hussein was also demonized. Iraq was the most modern and sophisticated Arab state, with national health care and public education systems, a reliable infrastructure producing water and electricity, as well as antiquities and artifacts dating back thousands of years. But it was a political rival that offset the influence of Israel and had to be taken out. I am therefore featuring the latest study by Dr. Christof Lehmann, a practicing clinical psychologist, a life time peace activist, political advisor, and advisor in behavior, finance, economics, conflict resolution and peace building, which I have edited for publication here. He has been and is active as political advisor, in work on human rights, international relations and peace, Palestinian issues, and other activities. You can learn more about him and nsnbc in the closing note.
Dr. Christof Lehmann
After Muammar Ghadafi recently encouraged the Libyan people to peacefully protest NATO aggression and occupation, there are demonstrations throughout Libya. Both Russia and China have voiced gravest concerns about NATO´s abuse of resolution 1973 on Libya and The African Union is following suit. Will any of the players that could be decisive put their money where their mouth is. The truth embargo of Western Media on Libya is slowly undermined by independent media, and the defeat of NATO and the TNC becomes increasingly difficult to mask. The result so far has been an humanitarian disaster and overt NATO aggression on unprecedented scale.
Since Muammar Ghadafi addressed the Libyan Population and world political leaders on 6 October 2011, there are careful, but widespread demonstrations throughout Libya, calling for an immediate end of NATO´s bombing and ground campaign. With over 2,000 civilians killed in Sirte alone and one military defeat after the other, even Western Corporate media find it increasingly difficult to mask the bitter truth. All that NATO and its bitterly divided TNC proxy with their CIA imported “rebels” have achieved so far is the murder and massacre of tens of thousands of Libyans, an unprecedented ongoing humanitarian disaster and an unprecedented infamy in NATO´s aggression that is bound to have global consequences.
China and Russia’s recent veto on a U.N. Resolution on Syria was a long expected response to NATO’s aggression. Both China and Russia voiced that they would not allow any new U.N. Resolutions that could possibly be abused like NATO`s abuse of U.N.-Resolution 1973 on Libya. A nsnbc source in Moscow reported from a meeting at the Russian State Duma on Friday that all political parties of Russia agree that Russia should vote against a prolongation of a U.N.-Mandate in Afghanistan; further more Russia would “demand” a significant reduction of U.S. and NATO military presence in the former Soviet republics bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan and China. The question is, will this new found courage of the Russian Bear manifest in action that stops NATO’s aggression in Libya before further tens of thousands have lost their lives?
Muammar Ghadafi
After Russia and China took a stronger position on NATO’s aggression in Libya, the African Union has followed suit, emphasizing that NATO had abused the African Union’s support of Resolution 1973. The “protection of civilian lives” by NATO is daily killing unarmed civilians. To answer the question of, Will the members of the African Union will put their money where their mouth is?, the answer is, “without Libya, many have no money, so they would be best served by backing their recent political grand standing before corporate media up with diplomatic as well as military action“.
According to a Libyan diplomat, Libya is one of five African Countries, besides Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa, who have together stood for 75% of the African Union’s budget. Mali, Congo, Liberia, Niger, Chad, the central African Republic, Mauritania, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Gambia have all received substantial support that has secured these nations development and their political stability, security and peace. The best advise any independent political advisor could give those nations, and the African Union, therefore, is that great challenges require great leadership and courageous decisions. Anything less than unequivocal solidarity in demands for an immediate end to NATO’s aggression in Northern Africa and a shift in foreign policy towards China and Russia will inevitably project Africa into a second era of colonization. How would Joseph Conrad write about Africa today? where is the heart of Darkness today?
Edward Said (1935-2003)
While Western Corporate Media, including Al Jazeera, have increasing difficulties in maintaining the positive narrative of “singing tomorrows” and “Arabian Spring Rebels” depicted as the worst case scenario of an Applied Orientalism that would be put to shame in an instant had the world not lost Edward Said, their narrative is increasingly rejected by even the most misinformed. As a life long journalist and Middle East Expert Einar Schlerth said in a correspondence with nsnbc this morning, “The Alternative Media are slowly sticking holes into Mainstream Medias Narratives“.
The TNC (“Trust No Colleague”) has today been plagued by one more shootout among its top level representatives. A planned meeting between representatives of the TNC and the Italian Oil Firm ENI at the Riksos Hotel in Tripoli ended in a shootout between the TNC representatives and their respective bodyguards, after the delegation from ENI failed to manifest. Only a few days ago the oil field installations at Babu Avel that produce oil for Italian ENI were destroyed by Libyan Forces. Yesterday the oil field should have come on line again, but installations were immediately destroyed by Libyan Forces. A nsnbc source close to the TNC could yesterday evening inform nsnbc that representatives of the TNC had been approached by “a US-Intelligence Service”, suggesting a division of Libya into a Northern and a Southern State.
The military situation for NATO and the TNC has not changed significantly. The majority of NATO and the TNC’s casualties are those unlucky enough to be in the way for indiscriminate artillery fire and precision bombing. But with today’s “smart bombs”, what excuse could there possibly be for yesterday’s bombing of the major hospital in Sirte? The Libyan Forces in Sirte are holding on. The fact that the city is still allowed to endure the thick of a full-scale modern colonial war by NATO; the fact that neither China nor Russia, nor the African Union, nor any of its member states have put their money where their mouth is with respect to the daily massacres and the rape of Libya; the fact that the U.N. is utterly discredited and impotent and nothing but the instrument designed to provide apparent legitimacy for the rape of sovereign nations; and the fact that leaders like Robert Mugabe are trembling from suppressed outrage when speaking “in the chambers of this most august organization” are all significant for one reason and one reason only.
Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe
Unless African Nations rapidly change their foreign and security alliances towards China and Russia and unless African Nations and other nations that are at the receiving end of “Humanitarianism a la the U.N.” will most urgently initiate diplomatic initiatives to build a true international community; and unless the African Leaders will show a long-awaited and long overdue display of personal and political integrity and courage in leadership and defiance against the continuous colonization of their continent, there will be many a Joseph Conrad needed to point out where the Heart of Darkness is today. Sunday in Libya.
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For a little background – this was Misurata Libya in 2005, before NATO crimes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZKYRL-8JWY
It is typical tourist propaganda in that it focuses on the more well-off areas, but as one Libyan I know(the only one I know) says the "slums" in Misurata would be like the lower middle class neighborhoods here in Canada, and I have no reason to doubt him on that.
But anyways in this short film you can see how much that evil Qaddafi dictator bloke robbed the people blind and abused them so heavily… if you get some special glasses from the CIA first that make you blind to reality.