Libya: The west can't let Gaddafi destroy his people

[pinboy3niner]

Libya: The west can't let Gaddafi destroy his people

The millions who began this revolution won't be much impressed by a democracy defined only by inertia


Editorial
The Observer, Sunday 13 March 2011

...


It won't be too long, at this rate, before Benghazi itself is threatened. And be equally clear what will happen when it is: there will be another bloodbath, this time a slaughter of men and women who dared to stand against a vile regime. Who'll sit comfortably through what will doubtless be dubbed another Srebenica?

The trouble for those of us who see human freedom as a human right and who therefore believe that we have a duty to support people who demand democratic government for themselves is that the choices involved can be damnably hard.

...


The millions who began this revolution won't be much impressed by a democracy defined only by inertia. They won't thank the west – or China, India, Russia, the African Union – for letting this Arab spring die in a field of flowery promises. They won't buy the kind of freedom that sells them out at first test. Tripoli isn't Kabul or Baghdad. Libya – in population, terrain and tribal divisions – makes quite different solutions possible.

But the only response that matters now is a common position which brooks no more argument: not to say in divisive detail what may or may not happen just down the road, but to pledge, with the honest passion we affect to feel that, whether repulsed in time or not, this particular tyranny will not be allowed to stand. Libya is part of freedom's future: it must not be buried by a quavering past.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/13/observer-editorial-libya

[former9thward]

1. They are trying to draw us into another war.

They know fighting three wars at once will destroy us.

[Igel]

2. Perhaps there'll be a bloodbath.

Perhaps there'll be a flotilla of refugees. Perhaps there'll be an amnesty and concessions.

Some people like to bargain from a position of power; then concessions show magnanimity and not weakness. Some people like to bargain to gain power. Hard to tell the difference, esp. when I'm predisposed to have little but ill-will.

But the calls for judgment against Qaddhafi and his cronies, for a thorough purge, for justice and a restoration of honor all argue for the "good guys" not having in mind sitting around, amiably chatting about the not-so-distant past while enjoying tabuleh and some music.

It's bad to romanticize and idealize the past, overlook all its warts and ulcers and botches. But at least the past is past. There's little to be done about it. The only danger is in allowing it to repeat itself through ignorance.

It's worse to romanticize and idealize the future, to overlook all the possible warts and ulcers and botches. There is something still to be done about it. The danger is willfully blinding ourselves to the problems not because it's unpleasant to do otherwise but because we don't find it sufficiently pleasant to do anything other than romanticize and idealize it.

[pscot]

3. Sure it can

Just watch.