April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

epression of government forces, leading to deaths, injuries, arrests and
kidnappings. And yet no one is suggesting taking the government of Iraq to
the International courts!
The United Nations is in fact a farce. It is a body that merely reflects the
domination of US imperialism. When the US are able to get resolutions
passed in order to justify their actions, they use the UN as a fig leaf.
When, for whatever reason, they are not able to get their aims endorsed
by the UN, they ignore the UN and carry them out regardless. And, finally,
when resolutions are passed against their imperialist aims (for instance
against the blockade on Cuba or condemning Israel’s oppression of the
Palestinian people), they simply ignore them, and they are never enforced.
In the recent case of the resolution on Israeli settlements on Palestinian
Territory, the US sued its veto to block resolution. So much for justice and
human rights.
In the last few days there has been a lot of noise and some concrete
actions on the part of imperialist nations regarding Libya. The US has now
moved two amphibious warships, the USS Ponce and the USS Kearsarge,
carrying helicopters and fighter jets, into the Mediterranean. Under the
cover of so-called “humanitarian intervention”, imperialist powers
(including the US, UK, France and Italy) amongst others, are discussing
what action they can take to secure their own interests. European
countries are mainly worried about the possible arrival of a mass of
refugees on their shores. Another worry is control over oil resources and
above all the impact of the revolutionary tide sweeping the Arab world on
oil prices and the knock on effect this could have on the capitalist
economy as a whole.
The most discussed option is a “no-fly zone”, which has been advocated
amongst others by both Republican senator John McCain and Democratic
senator John Kerry. For his own reasons, British Prime Minister David
Cameron, has also made belligerent noises, attempting to puff up a role in
world politics for Britain that it can no longer really play.
However, the truth is that even a limited intervention in the form of a no
fly-zone would be risky and complicated to implement. US Defense
Secretary Robert Gates complained that “there’s a lot of, frankly, loose
talk about some of these military options.” He warned of the implications
of such an action: “Let’s just call a spade a spade: a no-fly zone begins
with an attack on Libya, to destroy the air defences. That’s the way you
do a no-fly zone... It also requires more airplanes than you would find on a
single aircraft carrier. So it is a big operation in a big country.”
The US military is already overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, as he
stressed: “If we move additional assets, what are the consequences of that
for Afghanistan, for the Persian Gulf?” he said. “And what other allies are
prepared to work with us in some of these things?”
However, the main worry imperialist planners have regarding intervention
in Libya is the backlash this would generate throughout the region. The
masses are sick and tired of imperialism and the revolutionary wave which
is sweeping the Arab world is directly aimed at US-sponsored regimes.
Gates showed that the US ruling class is aware of this when he said: “We
also have to think about, frankly, the use of the US military in another
country in the Middle East.”
These considerations, of course, do not rule out imperialist intervention in
Libya or anywhere else, if their vital interests come under threat.
However, they do underline the fact that the US has been caught unawares