Obama Announces U.S. Led Assault Upon Libya

By Kenneth J. Theisen

On Friday, March 18 President Obama all but announced that the U.S.will soon engage in another unjust war in the Middle East. This inaddition to the overt wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and several covertwars in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and other locations. This new warmust be opposed.

Obama’s war announcement occurred one day after the U.N. SecurityCouncil voted for war by calling for a no-fly zone over Libya andauthorizing "all necessary measures…to protect civilians and civilianpopulated areas under threat of attack ... including Benghazi, whileexcluding an occupation force." This vote in essence opens the way fora war led by Western Imperialist powers in Libya.
The U.N. resolution was passed on a 10-0 vote,  with fiveabstentions.  The U.S. and its allies lobbied heavily for the vote andto prevent Russia and China from vetoing it.

On Friday Obama made it clear that the U.S. and its allies were readyto launch a military action against Libya. He threatened that ifMoammar Qaddafi didn't immediately halt all attacks on civilians inLibya and pull back his forces from Benghazi and other Libyan citiesthat the U.N. resolution would be "enforced through military action."

Obama declared that, "These terms are not subject to negotiations."  Inorder to quiet opposition to these war moves, Obama stated, "The U.S.is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya. We are not going touse force to go beyond a well-defined goal, specifically the protectionof civilians in Libya."

But just because the U.S. does not use “ground troops” doesn’t meanthat U.S. military forces will not be heavily involved in war, and infact orchestrating this war. The Reuters newswire service reported thatthe U.S. military was preparing to deploy additional amphibious assaultships to the Mediterranean in the next few days. This is in addition tothe numerous U.S. naval and air forces already deployed in the region.

No one should be surprised if the U.S. actually does deploy groundtroops, despite Obama’s statements. Once war is launched it is hard tostop the momentum toward all out war.  Just look at the wars in Iraqand Afghanistan.  Hundreds of thousands of troops and war contractorsare on the ground in those nations long after the U.S. political andmilitary leadership declared they had accomplished their missions, onlyto face reality that these unjust wars, wars in which the overwhelmingmajority of deaths, casualties and suffering is inflicted on civilians,are not easily “won”..

Obama bragged that the action would be done in cooperation with Franceand Britain. That changes nothing about the nature of the war.  TheU.S. has allies in occupying Iraq and Afghanistan as well.  Morekillers do not change anything except the number of victims.

Of course Obama is doing everything he can to obscure the imperialistnature of this war. Obama declares that his administration is concernedwith the situation in Libya for humanitarian reasons. He maintains thatQaddafi would commit brutal repression against the Libyan people, andthat his continued rule would destabilize the entire region to thedetriment of U.S. allies and partners. He said, "The Democratic valueswe stand for would be overrun," and the "words of the internationalcommunity would be rendered hollow."

In reality, the values of the U.S. ruling class are fully expressed inthe murderous wars it is waging in the Middle East and central Asia,and are being reiterated in its attack upon Libya. For decades in theMiddle East where the U.S. has supported various authoritarian anddictatorial governments.  It still does so in countries like SaudiArabia, Jordan and Bahrain.

Of course Qaddafi is brutal and does repress his people. But he hasdone so for years with the support of the U.S.  Until recently hecooperated with the imperialist powers.  But now that he can no longerefficiently do the bidding of the U.S. and its allies, they think hehas to go.  The actions of the Libyan people, like those of theEgyptian, Tunisian, and other peoples of the region are destabilizingthe entire region to the detriment of U.S. allies and partners. Theyare threatening U.S. domination of the region and worldwide hegemony. The U.S. is now getting involved to prevent any further threats to itsempire and not to protect democracy or the Libyan people. Real power inthe hands of the people of the Middle East is one of the greatestthreats to the imperialist stability needed by the U.S. Empire.

On March 19 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to go toParis to engage in discussions regarding the enforcement of the U.N.resolution. Before the United Nations vote, Clinton stated a U.N.no-fly zone over Libya would require the bombing of targets to removethe threat posed by Qaddafi's regime. The wording of this resolutionallows a much larger war than a “no fly zone”..  “…All necessarymeasures” is very broad language.

And the past should be very instructive about the imposition of no-flyzones.  The most recent no-fly zones were in the former Yugoslavia andIraq.  Both of those evolved into massive wars with much death anddestruction of innocent people in those nations. What makes anyonethink this will be any different?

People in Libya or anywhere else on this planet will achieve onlydomination and oppression by relying on the U.S. in their juststruggles. The U.S. imperialists have fought many wars and they weregenerally disguised with words such as freedom and democracy. Theyalways declare that their enemy consisted of tyrants, dictators,communists, terrorists, etc.  But each time we have been misled andnever told the true motives of the people who rule the global Americanempire.  We can not afford to be lied to again.