NATO’s action magnified the conflict’s duration about sixfold and its death toll at least sevenfold, while also exacerbating human rights abuses, humanitarian suffering, Islamic radicalism, and weapons proliferation in Libya and its neighbors. If Libya was a “model intervention,” then it was a model of failure.
President Barack Obama asked Congress Thursday for $500 million to train and arm vetted members of the Syrian opposition, as the U.S. struggles for a way to stem a civil war that has also fueled the al Qaeda-inspired insurgency in neighboring Iraq.
US armed forces are now involved in 49 out of 54 African states, along with the former colonial powers of France and Britain, in what’s becoming a new carve-up of the continent: a scramble for resources and influence in the face of China’s growing economic role, underpinned with an escalating military presence that spreads terror as it grows. That will bring its own backlash, as did the war in Libya.
Just because Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch don’t recognize the U.N. Charter or the Kellogg Briand Pact is not a reason for us not to. Laws don’t work that way. Laws remain law until they are repealed. These laws have not been. If a memo can make a murder part of a war and therefore legal, we are obliged to ask: What makes the war legal?
A political disaster planned and funded by Washington is entering a new and even Orwellian stage. What is Victoria Nuland’s impact on the Ukrainian crisis? Is there a peaceful resolution of the crisis? And what is on Nuland’s mind?
Navi Pillay is UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She’s a reliable imperial tool. She betrays her mandate. She does so consistently.
She disgraces the office she holds. She twists vital truths irresponsibly. She substitutes misinformation rubbish.
She serves Western interests exclusively. She’s up to her old tricks again.
Her new report is titled “Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine.” It’s infested with lies. It whitewashes what’s most important to reveal.
Russia has “no intention” of sending its troops anywhere, Lavrov said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the Foreign Ministry building in central Moscow. While holding Russia accountable for Ukraine’s presidential election on May 25 is “ridiculous,” the vote can’t be legitimate if it’s impeded by fighting, he said.
The real blame has to be laid at the feet of the American-dominated UN Security Council for its failure to put Israel on notice in the text of Resolution 242 that it would not be permitted to settle (colonize) any of the Arab territory it grabbed in the 1967 war. All those who drafted 242 knew it was a war of Israeli aggression not self-defence; and after “Emphasising the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”, the text should have indicated that if Israel settled the newly occupied territories in defiance of international law it would be sanctioned.
In short, to be a successful corporate journalist with high public visibility, two of the most important attributes are to direct one’s scepticism in the required direction – towards state ‘enemies’ – and to overlook or play down Western crimes. But perhaps the most important asset is the ability to believe sincerely in the essential ideological framework that drives Western government policies and public pronouncements: that ‘we’ are committed to making the world a better place.
There is a certain kind of liberal who places great faith in the ICC as a means of resolving conflicts and holding war criminals and human rights abusers to account. Personally, I think that faith is quite badly misplaced.
The ICC in it’s current incarnation is far too open to political manipulation and pressure from the stronger states of the world to be considered a neutral arbiter. This potential Resolution, which grants the U.S. and Israel immunity from prosecution, demonstrates that clearly.
We have absolutely no intentions of crossing Ukrainian borders. This is not in our interests. We simply want everybody to work together; we want the violence to stop and we want the Western countries who are trying to sweep under the rug those cases of violence and to portray the situation in Ukraine in a positive light to realize they need to bear the responsibility.
On the off-chance you have not been paying attention for the last couple of weeks, the US State Department, led by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, embarked on and succeeded in an overthrow of the legitimately elected government in Ukraine.
