Archive for the ‘Drive to Global War’ Category
Facing total economic meltdown at home US/UK, spear-heading NATO, have chosen the path of confrontation with the rest of the world, a path which will lead us to the brink of war with Russia and China
Franklin Lamb reporting from Libya
Posted by seumasach on July 9, 2011
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Italy cuts back on Libya role
Posted by seumasach on July 8, 2011
8th July, 2011
Nato alliance fears as Italy cuts back on Libya role
ITALY will pull back its role in the Libya campaign, the country’s defence minister said yesterday, bringing an aircraft carrier and hundreds of sailors home, in new evidence that a Nato alliance is starting to fray after nearly 100 days of bombing.
The drawdown will trim the cost of Italy’s mission by a third after it spent €142 million in three months, defence minister Ignazio La Russa said. The aircraft carrier Garibaldi will be replaced by a smaller ship, freeing up nearly 1,000 military personnel, though its three aircraft will be replaced by jets at Italian bases that would still fly missions.
The cutbacks were part of an overall trimming of Italy’s military missions abroad, but it was read as the strongest signal yet of a growing weariness with the war among some Nato allies. The US House of Representatives recently voted overwhelmingly against giving President Barack Obama the authority to continue the military mission, though it stopped short of cutting off funds.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi is under pressure to withdraw from the Libya campaign from his key ally the Northern League, which has opposed the war because of the cost and fears of an influx of migrants.
Nato’s campaign was originally intended to deliver a sharp, devastating military blow that would allow the opposition to quickly oust Muammar al-Gadhafi’s regime. France, which led the first airstrikes in March, said yesterday it is determined to continue and will urge its parliament to extend the operation.
A Nato spokesman yesterday denied a Libyan government charge it is using its airstrikes to assist rebel advances, saying it is sticking to its mandate to protect civilians.
Wing Commander Mike Bracken, an alliance spokesman in Naples, Italy, said Nato is “not involved in the ground battles,” although he acknowledged the alliance is tracking the fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Col Gaddafi.
Libya’s deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim had accused Nato of intensifying its bombing campaign and backing foreign mercenaries to lay the groundwork for an advance by rebels. Mr Kaim said increased bombings in recent days represent the “final phase” of Nato’s air campaign, but the push would fail.
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US are blood thirsty imperialists: Malema
Posted by seumasach on July 6, 2011
6yh July, 2011
ANC Youth League President Julius Malema on Wednesday labelled the United States as “blood thirsty imperialist” for bombing Libya with its Nato allies, the SABC reported.
“We want to ask a simple question to the imperialists. Are you not tired of seeing blood every year? You blood thirsty imperialists,” Malema said.
He was speaking at a protest by hundreds of Numsa members at the US Embassy in Pretoria.
“Every year you are bombing this or that nation, because of your thirstiness for blood. We should all agree that South Africa should not have voted for the resolution…,” said Malema.
It was recently reported that President Jacob Zuma had said that South Africa reiterated its concerns at the misinterpretation of a United Nations resolution.
The resolution authorises a no-fly zone over Libya, which Nato had used to “justify its bombing campaign”.
“They (the United States) can’t think. They don’t know politics.”
Malema also called the war in Libya “sponsored violence”.
He said it was sponsored by countries such as the US, France and Britain. –
Sapa
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Russia warns NATO over Libya action
Posted by seumasach on July 6, 2011
6th July, 2011
Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin has accused the military alliance of exceeding the UN resolution on Libya and thwarting the political process that can end the conflict.
Rogozin blamed NATO for undermining efforts by the Libyan opposition forces to initiate ceasefire negotiations with unpopular Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, Xinhua reported on Wednesday.
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Military stalemate in Libya heightens US-NATO crisis
Posted by seumasach on July 6, 2011
Patrick O’Connor
5th July, 2011
Despite nearly four months of daily US-NATO bombing raids over Libya, so-called rebel fighters have failed to make any significant advance beyond the areas they controlled in March. Nor has the Gaddafi government disintegrated, as had previously been anticipated in Washington, London, and Paris. The stalemate in the oil-rich state has heightened the crisis confronting the imperialist powers engaged in the illegal regime-change operation.
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Demand an end to Britain’s warmongering
Posted by seumasach on July 6, 2011
July, 2011
Sometimes foreign affairs impinge on our domestic scene so much that they warrant closer attention, especially as the “fog of war” obscures the real story. Workers are about to have standards of living further eroded amid rounds of cuts that are the worst for generations. At the same time, further bailouts – at our expense – loom and countries in our backyard have their economies downgraded to junk status.
So this declining capitalist system once again manages to find resources to embroil itself in yet another war with no clear exit. The expense is once again extracted from us – or, failing that, from the bank accounts Britain has confiscated from a sovereign nation. That’s why it is absolutely right to make the demand “Hands Off Libya”, to cease the bombing abroad and destruction at home. Instead we have the urgent task of rebuilding Britain.
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Colonizing Libya
Posted by seumasach on July 5, 2011
Colonizing Libya by Military, Financial, Political and Propaganda Terrorism
Stephen Lendman
After three and a half terror bombing months and counting, destroying Libya for wealth and power continues, each imperial nation playing its part in this sinister dirty game, masquerading as liberation.
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Have lobby, will travel
Posted by seumasach on July 5, 2011
Pepe Escobar
6th July, 2011
We interrupt the global fascination with the non-stop psycho drama of the DSK (Dominique Strauss-Kahn) case – Was he “a perv?” Was she “a hooker”? Was there a conspiracy? – to inform how a post-modern “kinetic military action” is won; in the public relations arena, where else.
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Libya’s anti-Kadhafi rebels no democrats, report claims
Posted by seumasach on July 5, 2011
14th June, 2011
The anti-Kadhafi uprising in Libya is neither democratic nor spontaneous, according to a delegation which visited the country last month.Theirreport, published by two French-based thinktanks, claims the rebel Transitional National Council (TNC) wants to impose Islamic sharia law and that the uprising is motivated by regional resentment and vindictiveness.
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Libye: un avenir incertain
Posted by seumasach on July 5, 2011
This report has been produced by the French think-tank, Centre international de recherche et d’études sur le terrorisme et d’aide aux victimes du terrorisme (CIRET-AVT)
May, 2011
Summary
Il n’est nul besoin d’insister sur la nature hautement critiquable de la dictature imposée, depuis 1969, par Muammar Kadhafi à ses concitoyens. Face à une telle situation, rien n’est plus légitime que l’aspiration { plus de liberté et de démocratie.
Néanmoins, l’étude des faits conduit { affirmer que la « révolution » libyenne n’est ni démocratique, ni spontanée. Il s’agit d’un soulèvement armé de la partie orientale du pays, dans un esprit de revanche et de dissidence, qui tente de s’inscrire dans la dynamique du « printemps » arabe, dont il ne relève cependant pas.
Le mouvement libyen ne peut donc être comparé avec les révoltes populaires tunisienne et égyptienne.
Plus inquiétant, le CNT s’affirme n’être qu’une coalition d’éléments disparates aux intérêts divergents, dont l’unique point commun est leur opposition déterminée au régime. Les véritables démocrates n’y sont qu’une minorité, et doivent cohabiter avec des d’anciens proches du colonel Kadhafi, des partisans d’un retour de la monarchie et des tenants de l’instauration d’un islam radical
Le CNT n’offre, en conséquence, aucune garantie pour l’avenir, malgré la détermination des démocrates, car les autres factions entendent bien orienter le conseil dans le sens de leurs objectifs.
Surtout, la Libye est le seul pays du « printemps » arabe dans lequel le risque islamiste s’accroît, la Cyrénaïque étant la région du monde arabe ayant envoyé le plus grand nombre de djihadistes combattre les Américains en Irak.
Il semble donc que les puissances occidentales ont fait preuve d’un aventurisme excessif en s’engageant dans cette crise. Ce qui devait être une victoire facile est devenu un semi-échec en raison de l’inconsistance des forces rebelles. L’enlisement des opérations des insurgés ne leur laisse que deux possibilités : un recul peu glorieux ou un engagement accru dans le conflit, notamment par l’envoi d’unités terrestres.
L’intervention occidentale est en train de créer plus de problèmes qu’elle n’en résout. Elle risque fort de déstabiliser toute l’Afrique du Nord, le Sahel, le Proche-Orient, et de favoriser l’émergence d’un nouveau foyer d’islam radical, voire de terrorisme, en Cyrénaïque.
La coalition parviendra peut-être { éliminer le guide libyen. Mais l’Occident doit prendre garde qu’il ne soit pas remplacé par un régime plus radical et tout aussi peu démocratique.
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Libya after Gaddafi
Posted by seumasach on July 5, 2011
Victor Kotsev
6th July, 2011
TEL AVIV – Should the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) disband the Libyan security forces and army, like the United States did, controversially, in Iraq, or should it preserve them and hope that their loyalties will switch? Apparently, this is a question worrying top British officials, as Bloomberg reported recently [1].
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In These New Times 