To Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg: “Brutal, Savage and Unacceptable.” by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
19 March, 2011

The Rt. Hon., Nick Clegg, MP.,
Deputy Prime Minister,
Houses of Parliament,
London SW1A.
(cleggn@parliament.UK)

Dear Mr Clegg,

Re: Libya.

I refer to your letter below, which was forwarded to me.

“No-fly zone” is an oxymoron, a total contradiction in terms. It means that Colonel Quaddafi’s “brutal, savage and unacceptable treatment”, will be replaced by our “brutal, savage and unacceptable treatment”, using depleted uranium weapons and blowing Libyan people to bits in their uncounted numbers (“it is not productive” to count coalition deaths as US Generals have said many times.) The region and peoples will become another Falluja, with the yet to be conceived, even, born with deformities often making them unrecognisable as human infants. Headless, limbless, organs on the outside of the body, one cyclops eye, no eyes, no brain.

Arm twisting at the UN., and of the Arab League is also a well worn path. We have been there before. Remember when Yemen voted against bombing Iraq in 1991? -The US Ambassador at the UN., told his Yemeni counterpart, that it was :” the most expensive vote you have ever made” – and cancelled seventy million$s worth of aid to Yemen.

Bombing people does not: “protect innocent people” and: “uphold universal human rights.” This is Orwell-speak.

There is also much evidence that a large part of this “revolution” has been fomented from outside, with moneys not a million miles from Washington, by Libyan long time exiles. Shades of Iraq and Ahmed Chalabi, Iyad Allawi and “Curveball” – Mr Janabi. And a fine mess that got Britain, America and Iraq into.

David Cameron and yourself, with respect, have morphed amazingly quickly into the despised potential war criminal, Tony Blair. It is the: “right approach”, you both sing from the same hymn sheet. Blair said, on the even of the holocaust which Iraq has become: “I know I’m right, I know I’m right …” The ruins of Mesopotamia, the five million orphans, the one and a half million dead, the four million refugees inside and outside the country, the million widows, have proved him about as wrong as it is possible to be.

What might be the “right approach”, for an organisation: “avowed the save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, would be to possible send in (genuine) UN., Peacekeepers, until the situation stabilizes.  Otherwise, this  will be another war of aggression. the: “supreme international crime”, which is the invasion of a sovereign state, which poses this country no threat.

Incidentally, Britain has let its own citizens die, terribly in Iraq and other countries, because we “do not negotiate with terrorists.” Yet we advocate, with the US., arming insurgents, to overthrow a legitimate, sovereign government. Illegal. Further, the crowd control methods now so decried by your government, the weapons from the air and even the training, has been a massive earner for the UK.

It is astonishing that as a father, you can argue for this course. You have clearly never stood by a hospital bed in a war zone and seen what just one bullet, or one missile, can do the body of a child or an adult. The more moral and peaceful world the Liberal Democrats have said they stood for died on the vote, the night before last.

Libya has the ninth largest oil reserves on earth. As Iraq, and as the desire for the vital resources through Afghanistan, no one with half a brain does not believe this is the real reason. There was no calls from your Party, or the Conservatives, for “no fly zones” of any hue, or for restraint, in “Operation Cast Lead” (Christmas-New Year 2008-2009) as Israel bombarded the people of Gaza, caught, like “fish in a barrel” to use a term about wanton slaughter, from a US General. That certainly looked like “brutal, savage and unacceptable” treatment, to most observers.

I write on the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the illegal invasion of Iraq. The invasion George W. Bush declared a “Crusade.” As you embark on the course of decimating another ancient Islamic land, another “Crusade”, to install another puppet regime, I can only say, shame on you all.

Yours sincerely,

Felicity Arbuthnot (Dr., Hon., Phil.)

19th March 2011

***

Dear … ,

As you will have seen in the news our coalition government has successfully led efforts in the UN Security Council to agree a ‘no-fly zone’ across Libya.

Colonel Gaddafi’s treatment of his own people has been brutal, savage and wholly unacceptable. We have worked with Libya’s regional neighbours, especially the Arab League, and countries across the globe, to secure a resolution in UN Security Council. This resolution will allow us to act lawfully in deploying our forces to up-hold a ‘no-fly zone’ in Libya.

The Prime Minister gave a statement yesterday, which you can read here. And on Monday we will have a full debate in the House of Commons, followed by a vote. In addition we will be publishing a summary of the legal advice of the Attorney-General.

That is the right approach. This is a coalition government that will act decisively to protect innocent lives and uphold universal human rights. But one which will do so working with, not against, international law and the international community.

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg MP
Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats

***

[DS added the video.]

French fighter jets over Libya

RussiaToday on Mar 19, 2011

French military jets are already flying over the country, to enforce the UN backed no-fly zone. Foreign leaders meeting in Paris said they’re ready to do whatever it takes to stop Colonel Gaddafi targeting civilian areas. Reports from Libya, suggest forces loyal to Gaddafi are carrying out attacks on the rebel stronghold city of Benghazi, despite the government ceasefire. RT’s Paula Slier is in Tripoli.

At a meeting in Paris, French president Nicholas Sarkozy said his country’s planes are now over the town of Benghazi, preventing any attacks against civilians. RT correspondent Daniel Bushell reports

see

Libya, Hypocrisy and Betrayal by the United Nations by Felicity Arbuthnot

Obama v. Obama by Dennis Kucinich + Chossudovsky: Libya no-fly zone means war

No to imperialist intervention in Libya! – http://wsws.org