Sometimes it seems to be a question of "dammed if you do and damned if you don't"
Here is Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate Magazine
The United States, with or without allies, has unchallengeable power in the air and on the adjacent waters. It can produce great air lifts and sea lifts of humanitarian and medical aid, which will soon be needed anyway along the Egyptian and Tunisian borders, and which would purchase undreamed-of goodwill. It has the chance to make up for its pointless, discredited tardiness with respect to events in Cairo and Tunis. It also has a president who has shown at least the capacity to deliver great speeches on grand themes. Instead, and in the crucial and formative days in which revolutions are decided, we have had to endure the futile squawkings of a cuckoo clock.
And here is John Pilger, writing in The New Statesman
As the US and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar. While Colonel Gaddafi is "delusional" and "blood-drenched", the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have sanctioned kidnap and torture in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of "stability".
I am with Hitchens and feel that we should intervene, but for goodness sake let's not pretend this is a video game. These things have to be carefully prepared and thought through. As for Pilger, I wonder if it has crossed his mind that it is precisely BECAUSE Libya is an oil-rich company that the US has hesitated to intervene.
Here is Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate Magazine
The United States, with or without allies, has unchallengeable power in the air and on the adjacent waters. It can produce great air lifts and sea lifts of humanitarian and medical aid, which will soon be needed anyway along the Egyptian and Tunisian borders, and which would purchase undreamed-of goodwill. It has the chance to make up for its pointless, discredited tardiness with respect to events in Cairo and Tunis. It also has a president who has shown at least the capacity to deliver great speeches on grand themes. Instead, and in the crucial and formative days in which revolutions are decided, we have had to endure the futile squawkings of a cuckoo clock.
And here is John Pilger, writing in The New Statesman
As the US and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar. While Colonel Gaddafi is "delusional" and "blood-drenched", the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have sanctioned kidnap and torture in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of "stability".
I am with Hitchens and feel that we should intervene, but for goodness sake let's not pretend this is a video game. These things have to be carefully prepared and thought through. As for Pilger, I wonder if it has crossed his mind that it is precisely BECAUSE Libya is an oil-rich company that the US has hesitated to intervene.
And I agree with you, Mr. Dunn, and think we will have to intervene - very soon if it is to do any good. But we will be on our own, no use pretending we might get support from the UN because Russian is determined we won't.
ReplyDeleteNo, of course it won't be easy and on the evidence of our actions over the last few days it will be at a very heavy cost. But will we be able to look ourselves in the eye if we continue to procrastinate?
But consider this:
ReplyDeletehttp://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/03/the-case-for-war.html
I would if I could find the article, Mr. Dunn. What I have so far found about Mr. Sullivan, though, sounds as though he is more of a warmonger than me.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't my preferred forum for stating my rather muddled views, but at this stage I'm thinking of something similar to leaselend though without the financial bits attached. Possibly the loan of planes for the rebels to use, arms, ships? - and how I dislike that term. It would be fairer to call them the opposition.
What I am finding very hard to stomach right now is the uncomfortable sight of the greybeards in hand-wringing conclave.
Who is one to believe? This is what Nicholas Kristof, someone I admire a lot, has to say:
ReplyDeletehttp://query.nytimes.com/search/opinion?query=Nicholas%20Kristof