Libya's "Operation Odyssey Dawn": Kosovo Revisited

Right from the very beginning of 'Operation Odyssey Dawn' something just didn't smell right about the Libyan 'revolution'. From the outset this was no peaceful, civilian insurrection such as those taking place elsewhere in the region. In other words it started life as a civil war heavily disguised - with Western help - as a 'peoples' revolution', but one armed and dangerous.

"Diplomatic observers were shocked by the sweeping resolution passed by the Security Council, which allows "all necessary measures" to be used against Libya. The United Nations Charter strictly limits Chapter 7 military actions to threats to international peace and security, which Libya has never represented, but rules out interference in internal affairs of member states. The pretext cited in this case was the protection of defenseless civilians, but it is clear that the rebels constitute an armed military force in their own right. Since no state can be an aggressor on its own territory, the Security Council resolution stands in flagrant violation of the UN Charter. Russia, China, Brazil, Germany, and India abstained. The resolution contains an arms embargo against Libya which the US is already violating by arming the rebels through Egypt." -- Obama's Bay of Pigs in Libya: Imperialist Aggression Shreds UN Charter By Dr. Webster G. Tarpley

Conned again

All the while many on the Western 'left' were waxing lyrical about the Libyan 'revolution' it was at the same time joining the imperial chorus calling for Western military intervention on 'humanitarian' grounds and all the while the Empire was plotting to get rid of another 'troublesome' puppet, partition Libya right down the middle, West and East, with the East (where most of the oil is located) led by the 'revolutionaries', mostly ex-Gaddafi hacks and CIA 'assets'. So much for the Western 'left's' understanding of the workings of the Empire.

SAS has been operating in Libya for weeks -- Daily Mirror, 21 March 2011

Actually, 'Operation Odyssey Dawn' as it is officially called, serves multiple functions:

1. It acts as yet another diversion/delusion from other more pressing events (timing is always critical);

2. It attempts to put the Empire on the 'side of the angels' following its embarrassment over its funding and (continued) support of a gaggle of murderous military dictatorships;

3. It gives the Empire yet another bridgehead in Africa;

4. And of course it guarantees the largest source of oil in Africa.

Job done.

Amongst those who abstained over Resolution 1973 were Russia, China, Brazil, Germany, and India. Aren't they embarrassed by their collective display of at the very least ignorance and at the most, indifference? Had Russia or China used their veto, this illegal invasion could at least have been delayed. Damn all politicians!

In the UK only thirteen MPs voted against the Libya operation after the invasion had already been launched! So much for democracy (what would have happened if by some miracle the Commons had voted it down? Could the British government unkill the people it has already murdered in Libya?).

The degree to which politicians use propaganda is illustrated by the following quote from a British MP, John Woodcock:

"Any path we choose is fraught with difficulty and innocent lives will be lost, but Colonel Gadaffi is likely to kill many thousands more civilians if we chose to pull out of enforcing a no-fly zone." -- 'Cumbrian MPs support UN action against Libyan forces', Northwest Evening Mail, 22 March 2011

More pre-emptive rationalization! On this basis anybody, anywhere is likely to be attacked based upon what they might do. It's outrageous that allegedly civilized people can agree (post-humously) to rain death and destruction down on the Libyan people based on nothing more than an opinion! It's based simply on the fact that the rebels faced defeat in Benghazi and the assumption that Gaddafi's forces would then go on the rampage raping and slaughtering the inhabitants of Benghazi.

So instead Gaddafi doing it, it's being done by the combined forces of the most powerful military machine on the planet that acts with impunity even excusing the inevitable 'collateral damage' based simply what he thinks the numbers of dead will be on either side! There speaks the voice of Empire, "Any path we choose" indeed spells it out, the God-given right to interfere anywhere they choose to.

It started life with well-placed atrocity rumours, created by ex-Gaddafi sidekicks that got the whole ball rolling. A classic Kosovo move: plant fake stories of ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Serbians (all the while arming the fascist Kosovo Liberation Army, who had been committing atrocities and funding their operations from the heroin trade), then send in NATO and bomb the shit out of the natives.

Isn't it about time that the Western 'left' stopped passing judgment on the workings of other countries (I suppose I should be thankful that's all it has) but words that essentially reflect the imperial mindset? The 'we know best' attitude, something I have come across all too often in my travels around the planet and one heavily imbued with racism, albeit of the patronizing kind (actually possibly the worst kind, the 'Robert Fisk' kind of liberal racism).

Fidel may be long in the tooth and very much out of the 'old school' way of thinking but he knows how the Empire operates, it's also very much 'old school' too.

"The NATO countries are drawing up a contingency plan taking as its model the flight exclusion zones established over the Balkans in the 1990s, in the event that the international community decides to impose an air embargo over Libya, diplomats said." -- 'NATO's Inevitable War: The Flood of Lies regarding Libya' By Fidel Castro, 4 March 2011

Note when Fidel wrote this, on 4 March, nearly three weeks ago, accurately predicting that the invasion was already a 'done deal'. But it needed a pretext, a 'Gulf of Benghazi' kinda thing, thus the video of a jet going down over Benghazi was offered as proof of Gaddafi's evil intentions. The problem was that is was a rebel jet, shot down no doubt by Gaddafi's forces.

As with everything else about the Libyan 'revolution' (I wish), nothing is what it appears to be, all is illusion faithfully peddled by a complicit MSM. Thus the chance for the Libyan people to really take charge of their own future has been aborted by the Empire.

William Bowles is a frequent contributor to Global Research.