‘Revolutionaries’ are not armed by the West

• By Jody McIntyre
• The Foreign Desk
• Sunday, 3 April 2011 at 5:11 pm

The arguments for war in Libya are quickly falling apart.  Gaddafi’s forces retain control of most of the country, with rebel forces unable to advance further than the dictates of our bombing campaign.  On Saturday, one of those ‘precision’ bombs killed 14 rebels just east of Brega, in what the mainstream media have conveniently termed as ‘friendly fire’.  That’s the friendly missiles of European armies, spilling yet more blood in northern Africa.  However much the leadership of the Libyan rebels bend over to the desires of Western governments, their lives will always remain expendable.
As is rapidly becoming clear, and has should have been obvious from the moment Foreign Minister William Hague claimed Gaddafi had fled to Venezuela during the opening days of the uprising, the co-opting of Libyan resistance has been complete.  Long-forgotten are the days of unarmed civilians marching through Benghazi to demonstrate against the government, holding placards defying any foreign intervention in their cause.  Now we have rebel forces armed with Kalashnikovs, demanding that Nato bomb their country.
We are supposed to believe that these armed rebels forces are the face of a civil uprising, despite the fact that they were members of the Gaddafi government a few weeks ago.  We are supposed to feel a sense of compassion for the Libyan people, despite knowing that we manufactured the weapons used against them.
We are supposed to be shocked when Gaddafi responds to an armed insurgency by killing Libyan people, despite the fact that almost every government in the world would respond in the same way.  If the demonstrators in London, attacked and beaten by the police for sitting in Trafalgar Square, had armed themselves with machine guns and declared their desire to overthrow the government, how are we supposed to imagine the British state would respond?  But, of course, Gaddafi is a ‘mad dog’, so it is completely different.
History shows us that rebellions armed by the United States and Britain are ethically and morally bankrupt.  Have we forgotten about the Contras of Nicaragua, the Mujahedeen of Afghanistan and the Cuban dissidents of Miami?  These are the ‘freedom fighters’ we support and arm to the teeth, but what happens when they kill their own people?  All part of the struggle for that Great Western Democracy they have been fighting towards for so long, I suppose?
Mr. Hague assures us that Gaddafi’s foreign minister, recently arrived in the UK, will not receive immunity from any prosecution, before an accusation of a crime has even been made!  We keep talking about the massacre that we prevented in Benghazi, but Gaddafi’s forces are still fighting, and there has been no massacre.  There have been massacres in Yemen and Bahrain, and unarmed protestors killed in the streets of Syria, but we don’t need to talk about them.
As with any civil war, many people have died in Libya in the last few weeks. Gaddafi has responded to demonstrations like any person corrupted by power does; by killing his own people.  By stirring tensions and arming both sides of the conflict, we have ensured that the number of casualties will continue to rise.
Picture:Reuters