Tag: Libya

Impotence in the face of impunity? By William Bowles

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29 February 2012

A fellow writer tells me that she feels overwhelmed by events and I feel the same way. An awful sense of deja vu that we have as much chance of stopping the march to total war as they had in the 1930s. Except that this time it will not be us citizens of Empire who are on the receiving end of Western industrial-scale murder and pillage. The world’s first colonial world war, with the haves pitted against the have-nots. As I have remarked before, without a non-capitalist alternative to not only reign in some of the ‘excesses’ of capitalism but also curtail its relentless expansion, the world is essentially defenceless.

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What is going on in Libya? By William Bowles

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29 August 2011

29 August 2011

Some Tweets on ‘African Mercenaries’

J0nblaz @al_Jamahiriya @journalist92 This what we mean by Black Libyans being pursued & executed by NATO rabble terrorists! goo.gl/tkaDP

MikePrysner Rebels are correct; many Black Africans being lynched in #Libya were “hired by #Gaddafi.” They’re called immigrant workers, not mercenaries, about 3 hours ago

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Welcome to the world of terrorist television By William Bowles

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4 August 2011

“Nato has attacked a Libyan state broadcaster in the capital, bombing three satellite dishes in Tripoli, saying the channel instils hatred.” — ‘Libya unrest: Nato bombs state broadcaster‘, BBC News 30 July 2011

At first when I heard this I couldn’t believe my ears. What a pathetic excuse for killing people but then desperate times demand desperate measures. The Empire is in disarray!

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The Left has lost its way over Libya By William Bowles

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26 July 2011

In an essentially excellent piece Sarah Flounders ‘Libya: Demonization and Self-determination‘, near the beginning under the sub-head ‘What should be the response to this terror?’ she writes:

“Unfortunately, a minority of groups or individuals who present themselves as opponents of war spend more time cataloguing Gadhafi’s past real or alleged shortcomings than rallying people to respond to this criminal, all-out U.S. attack. Their influence would be small, except that it coincides with the opinions of the U.S. ruling class. Thus it is important to thoroughly answer their arguments.”

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Russia Today: A new kind of media? By William Bowles

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2 July 2011

Is Russia Today a sign of things to come in the world media order?

A global, digital media cuts both ways or as they say ‘what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander’. The arrival of The Real News Network, Democracy Now! and grtv for example demonstrates what can be done, even on a shoestring budget. But to get onto the global media circuit still requires big bucks in spite of all the talk about ‘convergence’ and ‘citizen journalism’.

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Syria/Libya versus Bahrain: A BBC factoid By William Bowles

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23 June 2011

Facts are wonderful things, ignore them at all cost:

“Was the decision taken [by NATO] that killing civilians here would save others elsewhere?” — ‘Libya: Funerals fuel controversy over Nato airstrikes‘, Jeremy Bowen, BBC News Website, 22 June 2011

When I first heard this report by Bowen on 22/6/11 I couldn’t believe my ears! Here is the much vaunted objectivity of the BBC revealed for what it’s worth, nothing, nothing at all. Does Bowen really listen to what he himself said? Kill little children here so that these little children won’t kill people elsewhere?

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William Hague: Following in Churchill’s footsteps By William Bowles

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16 June 2011

“I do not understand this sqeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes.” — Winston Churchill in 1920 when referring to Iraqi tribes people.

Now let me get this straight: In order to save civilian lives (the infamous ‘Right to Protect’), the Empire, through its Rottweiller NATO, not only deindustrializes Libya but it also causes a mass exodus of refugees hundreds of whom drowned and many thousands more were left stranded, attacked and abused. The Pirates attempted to assassinate Gaddafi but succeeded in killing women and children instead. The Pirates bomb educational infrastructure, communications, power, agriculture and terrorize the population from the air and sea with the combined military might of the most powerful countries on the planet. So this is what humanitarian intervention looks like?

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Empire Games – but who writes the rules? By William Bowles

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12 June 2011

The Western left’s abdication, nay abandonment of principles that go to the heart of the socialist liberation project has been long in the making, decades even and made all the more obvious by the left’s take on events in Libya and now Syria. Critiques of the ‘humanitarian, socialist interventionists’ came thick and thin but for the most part the fundamental question of why the left had abandoned its historic mission has not been asked. Continue reading →

The truth about ‘civilized transitions’ By William Bowles

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16 May 2011

“What about giving Gaddafi an exit strategy?” — Channel 4 News presenter to somebody or other, 16 May, 2011

This is what it comes down to: A TV ‘news’ presenter reveals in all its starkness, how the Empire corrupts totally. Here we have an apparently intelligent and educated person dismissing the leader of a country as if he’s just another expendable piece of the Empire’s junk. ‘Yeah, why you don’t just get rid of him, make him go away’. It’s absolutely outrageous that we accept this kind of rubbish and it’s echoed right across the MSM (see below).

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Libya: Some ruminations on current events By William Bowles

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4 May 2011

I know I keep hammering on about this but it still hasn’t sunk in with those who profess to be on the left, bemused, or perhaps it’s bewitched, as they are by the concept of ‘humanitarian intervention’. Take the latest bleat from down under:

“I firmly believe the left and progressive forces have made a serious error in viewing and equating Libya with the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Libya is not the same situation; there has been a popular peoples uprising.” — ‘Libya: The left should not oppose call for military intervention‘, Steven Katsineris, Greenleft

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Libya: The Empire conducts a war fest (or business as usual) By William Bowles

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8 April 2011

To paraphrase, the first casualty of capitalism is the truth and the outrageous and totally illegal invasion of Libya, launched with so much super-heated air, has degenerated into a vile exposé of the true nature of imperialism. The Tonkin Gulf of Libya that was the excuse for this sordid and disgusting operation rested on the claims of two allegations: bombing of civilians and Gaddafi’s use of ‘African mercenaries’. Both claims have proved to be complete fabrications, but guess what? Continue reading →

Libya: Distractions and diversions By William Bowles

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6 April 2011 — Strategic Culture Foundation

“This is pure hypocrisy and demagogy, they are already giving weapons to the rebels, and not only that: they are interfering in the struggle of the Libyan people,” he said, adding that this action is against international law and the United Nations Charter.” — Miguel D’Escoto

One thing should surely be clear and that is the pivotal role played by the corporate/state media in selling the Libyan ‘no-fly zone’ and the subsequent invasion by the Empire, albeit by first ‘softening up the enemy’ and then as illegal arms supplier. Thus the ‘rebels’, about whom absolutely nothing is known, become the West’s ‘democratic’ torch-bearers and all pretence at it being some kind of ‘humanitarian intervention’, is dropped.

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Libya: A sheep in wolf’s clothing? By William Bowles

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28 March 2011

“The world is suffering, at the same time, the consequences of climatic changes; shortages and prices of foods, military spending and the squandering of natural and human resources are increasing. War was the timeliest event that could happen at this time.” — ‘Partnership of Equals‘ By Fidel Castro Ruz

I’m glad someone is on the ball.

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Libya is Kosovo revisited (kind of) By William Bowles

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22 March 2011

No doubt much self-flagellation is currently taking place amongst the Western ‘left’, or at least it should be given their atrocious reading of the Libyan ‘revolution’.

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. Continue reading →

Libya: Keeping up appearances By William Bowles

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21 March 2011 — Strategic Culture Foundation

“The US has signalled that the international community should “go beyond” a no-fly zone in Libya, suggesting military intervention for the first time.”” — “West should ‘go beyond’ no-fly zone, US says” — The Daily Telegraph, 20 March 2011

So why is there no ‘no-fly zone’ over the Ivory Coast, or Yemen, or Bahrain or indeed any country where the state is killing its citizens? What makes Libya different? Could it be that the hysterical propaganda campaign concerning Gaddafi’s human rights abuses in the Western media is related to the following, with the head of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen telling his Polish audience:

“When I look at central and eastern Europe I’m extremely optimistic about the future we can achieve in North Africa” — ‘NATO: Libya Military Intervention: Model For North Africa‘, Reuters, 17 March 2011

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Libya: Bewitched, bothered and bewildered By William Bowles

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7 March 2011

“Despite the situation in Libya remaining unresolved, one thing is now certain: the president of the United States is now in control of the money, and this gives him a powerful tool … ‘Most countries consider the freezing of their assets an act of economic warfare'” — ‘Money as a weapon in West’s war on Libya‘, RT, 7 March 2011

In the West, revolution is something we are not very familiar with although it’s something the Left talk about an awful lot, other peoples’ revolutions that is.

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Libya: I smell a rat By William Bowles

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3 March 2011 — Strategic Culture Foundation

“[T]o be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.” — Henry Kissinger

From the very beginning of the Libyan uprising/coup, call it what you will, something didn’t strike me as ‘right’, events unfolded in a vacuum as if overnight, chaos took over. As I reported in an earlier piece, all the videos coming out of Libya, were grainy unattributed snatches of events, it was impossible to tell what was really going on, and accompanied by all manner of rumours about what it was alleged Ghadafi’s regime was doing.

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Libya: The Empire strikes back By William Bowles

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27 February, 2011 — Strategic Culture Foundation

Pre-amble: I started writing this before events in Libya escalated, but it illustrates why it is imperative that we understand what exactly is going on in the Middle East and North Africa, especially when it comes to distinguishing between our wishes and reality. This is especially true of what is happening in Libya, where fact and invention (as well as wishful thinking) have become blurred in the press coverage.

Thanks to its rich reserves of oil and natural gas, Libya has a positive trade balance of $27 billion a year and a medium-high per capita income of $12,000, six times greater than that of Egypt … Witness the fact that nearly one million and a half immigrants, mostly from North Africa, work in Libya. Some 85 percent of Libyan energy exports go to Europe: Italy takes first place with 37 percent, followed by Germany, France and China. Italy is also in first place in imports to Libya, followed by China, Turkey and Germany.

This framework is now blown into the air as a result of what can be characterized not as a revolt of the impoverished masses, such as the rebellions in Egypt and Tunisia, but as a real civil war, due to a split in the ruling group. — ‘Libya in the Great Game‘ By Manlio Dinucci, Global Research [my Emph. Ed]

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