Tuesday, August 02, 2016
As US
Attacks Libya Again, Peace Group Tells Obama: 'Stop the Bombing'
"In the last seven years," notes CODEPINK petition,
"Nobel Peace Prize-winning President Obama has bombed seven
countries."
Citing the disastrous bombing campaign in
2011 that pushed the nation into political chaos and bloody violence, anti-war
groups are calling for an immediate end to a new wave of airstrikes on Libya
approved by U.S. President Barack Obama.
"The world needs a peace movement now
more than ever, as Obama continues to drop bombs all over the Middle East and
we prepare for the next US president." —CodePinkIn an online petition sent
out Tuesday, the U.S.-based peace group CODEPINK declared:
In the
last seven years, Nobel Peace Prize-winning President Obama has bombed seven
countries. Tell President Obama it's time to stop endless bombing
across the Middle East!
We, the
undersigned, call on President Obama to end the bombing campaign in Libya and
across the Middle East. We agree with Congresswoman Barbara Lee when she said
that "there is no military solution to this crisis" with [the Islamic
State or ISIS]. We ask that the administration instead take steps to form a
comprehensive regional approach that addresses political, economic,
humanitarian and diplomatic challenges that allow [ISIS] to commit violence.
With neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump
running as a peace candidate, CODEPINK said in a statement "that the world
needs a peace movement now more than ever, as Obama continues to drop bombs all
over the Middle East and we prepare for the next U.S. president."
The U.S. military's series of airstrikes on
Libya on Monday was the start of a 30-day offensive approved by Obama,Fox
News reported on
Tuesday.
The U.K.-based Stop the War Coalition described the
new assault as a "neo-colonial offensive" that would "only pile
further misery on to the Libyan people who have suffered a social meltdown as a
result of the last," referring to the U.S.-backed toppling of Libyan
dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Obama's latest orders, the group added, will
only further "entrench divisions and intensify violence" in the
region. "We must step up our efforts to break our governments’ obsession
with military solutions."
The airstrikes, which were reportedly
directed at targets affiliated with ISIS, continued throughout the day on
Tuesday, amounting to at least seven strikes since the campaign began.
"Marine Corps Harrier jets launched from
the Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp conducted at least two airstrikes
against ISIS targets in the coastal city of Sirte Tuesday," Fox
News reported. "USS Wasp is set to remain off the Libyan coast in
the Mediterranean Sea for the next month along with an escort ship, the
guided-missile destroyer USS Carney."
Notably, Fox reported that
while the president's authorization in Libya "was limited to Sirte,"
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters that "the U.S. military
reserved the right to conduct counterterrorism strikes elsewhere in the country
as the U.S. military did in November and February," referring to previous strikes
in Libya.
And as Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) pointed out on
Monday, the military campaign against ISIS continues to grow and evolve
"despite the lack of a Congressional debate or specific
authorization."
"Our military experts are clear: there
is no military solution to this crisis," Lee added. "Only a comprehensive,
regionally-led strategy that addresses the underlying political, economic,
humanitarian and diplomatic challenges will be effective in ultimately
degrading and dismantling [ISIS]."
During a press conference on Tuesday, Obama
said the action was carried out by request of the Libyan government, claiming
the expanded military campaign was vital in the multinational war against ISIS.
"It is in America's national security
interest in our fight against [ISIS] to make sure that they are able to finish
the job, so we are working in partnership with them to assure that [ISIS] does
not get a stronghold in Libya even as Libya begins what is going to be a slog—a
long process to establish a functioning government and security system
there," he said.
Indeed, Obama himself admitted earlier
this year that "failing to plan for the day after" the overthrow of
Gaddafi was the "worst mistake"
of his presidency. Critics of U.S. military strategy have long-warned that the
2011 intervention would create a power vacuum and inevitably pave the way for
an entity, such as ISIS, to gain control.
Now, the expanded bombing campaign will only
continue the "War on Terror Circle of Life," as Guardian columnist
Trevor Timm put it on
Tuesday, "where the U.S. bombs a country and then funnels weapons
into the region, which leads to chaos and the opportunity for
terrorist organizations, which then leads more U.S. bombing."
Capt. Davis attempted to soothe reporters on
Tuesday, saying, "We don’t envision this as being something that’s going
to be too long."
"This is a finite period of time and a
very finite mission," he added.
However, placing the "very finite
mission" in more acute economic and historical context, the Stop the War
Coalitionposited that
the bombing of Libya is a stark reminder of how western nations continually
pursuit their own strategic interests above the interests of local populations
and regional stability.
For example, though the bombing campaign is
marketed as an effort to oust ISIS militants from Sirte, the coalition noted
the role that fossil fuel reserves continue to play when it comes to offensive
bombing campaigns undertaken by the U.S. and other western armies:
The
attacks on [ISIS], who occupy some of the most important oil and gas producing
areas in the country, have to be seen against this background. They come at a
time when [ISIS] control appears to be weakening rather than strengthening, and
interestingly, just a day after the New York
Times announced an agreement between the [interim Libyan
Government of National Accord, or GNA] and the Petroleum Facilities Guards to
reopen three eastern ports that haven’t been shipping oil for eighteen months.
The paper reported that the National Oil Company estimates that nationwide oil
production could increase by 150,000 barrels a day, from about 400,000 barrels
a day, within two weeks.
The new
offensive by the US is part of an attempt to secure hegemony in one of the most
important oil and gas producing countries in the world. Libya has the
largest crude oil reserves in Africa, and the fifth largest gas
reserves. Its location so close to Europe makes it particularly important
strategically for the Western powers. The forces that recapture Sirte and the
Sirte Basin to its South - the location of 80% of proven reserves - will
control the Libyan economy.
Meanwhile, as Jason Ditz reported for Antiwar.com,
the situation on the ground is much more complicated than most reporting reveals,
with the UN-backed GNA serving as only one of "several forces trying to
take over Sirte from ISIS, including the rival Tripoli parliament and its
allies in the Misrata militia. It remains to be seen if the U.S. focus is
solely on ensuring ISIS loses the city, or if they will commit militarily to
resist it falling to another faction."
Appearing to prove that instability and
further violence would find fertile ground amid increased U.S. military
support, a car bombing in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday reportedly claimed
the lives of at least 22 people.
"There have been occasional car bombings
[in this area]," the Guardian reported,
"though the toll from Tuesday’s blast was unusually high."
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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