Watching the Sunday news shows today I had a Dejavu feeling from 2003. In the very early days of the Iraq war, Condi Rice and Donald Rumsfeld were going to the different Sunday talk shows making various arguments to promote the war in Iraq. Things like: Saddam Hussein is dangerous for the stability of the region; Saddam Hussein has WMDs; Saddam Hussein has been slaughtering his own people; Saddam Hussein is terrible; Saddam Hussein is a killer, etc. etc.
Today we had Hillary and Gates going to the different Sunday talk shows making various arguments to promote the war in Libya. They made arguments like Gadhafi is dangerous for the stability of the region; Gadhafi has been slaughtering his own people; Gadhafi is terrible; Gadhafi is a killer, etc. etc. Oh, and the remarkable argument:
"This is a humanitarian mission".
It is hard to watch this and not wonder how easily many forget. It is even more disturbing to see progressives fall into the trap that this war is "humanitarian" and endorse and support another insane war. Just in case anyone forgets, Secretary Gates was appointed not by Obama, but by George Bush. He was supposed to stay only one year for transition purposes. Well, he is not going anywhere. He is still there and helping the administration to promote neoconservative (or call it neoliberal) war ideas and adventures.
The good news is that there members in the congress, like Dennis Kucinich, who opposes strongly this war. Or senator Bernie Sanders who expressed concerns about the war in Libya and has a poll about it on his website. It is really worth listening to senator Sanders' radio interview here.
This war is as wrong as the Iraq war was. Saddam Hussein was terrible and Ghadafi is also terrible, but that does not make the wars right. It is ridiculous to argue that any of these wars were driven by humanitarian intentions. Bombs are never humanitarian. They do not deliver food or medicines. They just kill. The administration has been arguing that we prevented a bloodbath by interfering in the civil war of Libya and stopping the Gadhafi forces from taking Benghazi. Ok, assuming this is true, how will we prevent a blood bath the other way? I mean what would happen if and when the rebels take Tripoli? Will there be a blood bath against Ghadafi loyalists and supporters? As he Ghadafi clearly has supporters in Tripoli. And what will we do to stop it? And for anyone who thinks this argument has no basis, they should go back and read the history of the Kosovo war. There were heavy reprisals and atrocities against Serbs (civilian Serbs) after the change of power in Kosovo. Horrific atrocities happen in all wars and that is why it is a good idea to avoid them.
I hope that more members of congress will stand up to the new insanity. They should do everything they can to de-fund and stop this new war.