The continuing tragedy of our illegal invasion of Iraq, is that we have no moral authority to demand action when we should!
Colonel Gaddafi has proven beyond all shadow of a doubt that he is a brutal and murderous tyrant, prepared to use troops, tanks, heavy artillery and war planes against the people of the country he ruled for 30 years. Western governments have now finally begun to recognise the "rebels" in Libya as the legitimate government, even as Gaddafi's "war against his own people" intensifies. Foreign journalists have been taken and tortured by Gaddafi's forces which raises serious concerns at the treatment Libyan revolutionaries who have been captured must be receiving, or what horrors await the people of Libya in the bloody aftermath if Gaddafi is able to crush this uprising.
Every humanitarian instinct in me is screaming out that we should already have sent in the RAF to provide air cover for the rebels, and that international forces should be enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, preventing the regime from using its helicopter gunships, fighters and bombers on towns and cities held by the rebels. These people are rising up in the name of democracy and freedom, they deserve and need our help, and although they are understandably opposed to the idea of British or American ground forces in Libya, they have made increasingly desperate requests for a no fly zone to be imposed.
In the meantime western leaders appear to be making the right noises whilst sitting on their hands, and the cynic in me suspects that they are just waiting to see how our own interests in this oil rich state can best be served before we intervene. My own reluctance to insist that my government takes immediate and forceful action against the Gaddafi regime in these circumstances absolutely sickens me! If we are to have armed forces then surely this is the kind of situation where we should have no doubt that these people need and deserve our help, but I quite simply do not and can not trust our leaders enough to demand that they go to war in our name, simply to find that we have annexed another nation in the name of democracy only to seize control of their natural resources.
This is the legacy of Bush and Blair's "war on terror", and yet another reason to pile condemnation upon them for robbing us of any moral legitimacy to use force when it is absolutely necessary.
Now please excuse me but I think I need to throw up.
Colonel Gaddafi has proven beyond all shadow of a doubt that he is a brutal and murderous tyrant, prepared to use troops, tanks, heavy artillery and war planes against the people of the country he ruled for 30 years. Western governments have now finally begun to recognise the "rebels" in Libya as the legitimate government, even as Gaddafi's "war against his own people" intensifies. Foreign journalists have been taken and tortured by Gaddafi's forces which raises serious concerns at the treatment Libyan revolutionaries who have been captured must be receiving, or what horrors await the people of Libya in the bloody aftermath if Gaddafi is able to crush this uprising.
Every humanitarian instinct in me is screaming out that we should already have sent in the RAF to provide air cover for the rebels, and that international forces should be enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, preventing the regime from using its helicopter gunships, fighters and bombers on towns and cities held by the rebels. These people are rising up in the name of democracy and freedom, they deserve and need our help, and although they are understandably opposed to the idea of British or American ground forces in Libya, they have made increasingly desperate requests for a no fly zone to be imposed.
In the meantime western leaders appear to be making the right noises whilst sitting on their hands, and the cynic in me suspects that they are just waiting to see how our own interests in this oil rich state can best be served before we intervene. My own reluctance to insist that my government takes immediate and forceful action against the Gaddafi regime in these circumstances absolutely sickens me! If we are to have armed forces then surely this is the kind of situation where we should have no doubt that these people need and deserve our help, but I quite simply do not and can not trust our leaders enough to demand that they go to war in our name, simply to find that we have annexed another nation in the name of democracy only to seize control of their natural resources.
This is the legacy of Bush and Blair's "war on terror", and yet another reason to pile condemnation upon them for robbing us of any moral legitimacy to use force when it is absolutely necessary.
Now please excuse me but I think I need to throw up.
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