These humanitarians come to Libya with missiles, and an agenda
Rather than protecting Libyans Nato is prolonging the agony of civil war. David Cameron should think on Suez and retreat
To creep or not to creep, that is the question. Britain's Libyan war is entering its most dangerous phase. The great lie has once again been rumbled, that air power can deliver any sort of victory. The humanitarian imperative is in full cry, swamping the media and blinding strategy with daily tales of horror from the front. The mission, confused from the start, is moving where such missions always move, towards ever deeper engagement. Why does no one see it?
The prime minister, David Cameron, faces daily accusations of halfheartedness and desertion from his new comrades in arms, the Libyan rebels. In reply he complains of UN "restrictions" on his freedom to "take all necessary measures … to stop Gaddafi murdering people in Misrata". His minister for mission creep, Andrew Mitchell, has been in New York waving the shrouds of dead Libyans before the security council and demanding changes in the rules of engagement. The foreign secretary, William Hague, offers the rebels "non-lethal assistance", which appears to mean flak jackets and 10 training officers to offer "logistics and intelligence", but not to fight. This is war through the looking glass, glory sought from the blood of others.
There can be no argument that ghastly things are happening in the streets of Misrata, the provinces of Syria, the towns of Yemen, the hospitals of Bahrain and the streets of Baghdad. Liberal intervention has never had much truck with Kant and universalism. Bombs do not follow ethics, they follow cameras. If it bleeds it leads. Libya is today's war, and that is that.
Cameron watchers are mesmerised by how he found himself up this creek with no paddle other than the dubious Nicolas Sarkozy. The iron law of Nato, which is do nothing unless the Americans are in the lead, was clearly breached. Barack Obama could not have been clearer in not wanting a new Middle East conflict.
full:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/19/libya-nato-civil-war-cameron
DAMN YOU Carina!
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