To the Editor:
I do not believe the current operation in Libya by the United Nations or NATO or France or the Harper government is about human rights or protecting civilians. Oil helps, but it may not be about oil either. I suspect that it mainly provides a distraction for the governments of France and Britain from their domestic problems (and yes, in Canada, too).
One cannot believe the hypocritical nonsense being fed to us that this is the “moral” thing to do, because recent history shows us that nothing is done to protect innocent civilians in almost every case. Hundreds of thousands have died in Darfur and the civil wars in west Africa. The truly helpless in the Congo have been murdered and raped in the millions (the greatest ongoing humanitarian disaster of the last generation). Of course, one dare not mention the hundreds of civilians killed and subjected to phosphorus attacks during the recent strikes into Gaza by the state of Israel, for whom the Harper government is an uncritical cheerleader.
None of these people, however, ship oil to Europe. If protecting civilians was the preeminent goal, I would expect Canada and its allies to be standing off of the Ivory Coast to protect those poor people for the civil war about to be unleashed there.
Now, Gaddafi is a suitable, just and easy target, being not only a brutal dictator, but a bombastic buffoon, as well. I hope the rebels are successful. However, these are not all innocent civilians. They rose up (no doubt with good reason) in armed rebellion against their government. Have we forgotten that they attacked police stations, burned government buildings and occupied military bases? Subsequently, they barrelled down the road west to throw out the dictator. The best quote I have read concerning this is, “When you draw your sword against your prince, throw away the scabbard.”
You have a lot of people in civilian clothes running around with heavy weapons. If they were fighting NATO in Afghanistan, they would be “unlawful combatants” (whatever those are). For NATO’s sake and Libya’s sake, I hope they are better at organizing a government than a military campaign.
Which must bring us to Canada and our great enthusiasm for this “moral” mission. I worry about the foreign policy of the Harper government: the desire to jump in to every fight and pick a side, the calculated rejection of Canada’s peacekeeping past. We were once the number one honest broker in the world with unparalleled “soft power”. What competent nation now plays this role? They won’t even let us on the Security Council of the UN.
I suspect I know why the Harper government is so keen to get their hands on those expensive stealth fighters, which are so unsuitable to our needs for the air defence of our arctic and air space. They are, however, very good for attacking other countries as part of a coalition and getting photo ops as you hang around the big boys and pretend you are a player.
Mike Keeling
Erickson