NIEUWS NEDERLANDS PALESTINA KOMITEE

Libya: a legitimate and necessary debate from an anti-imperialist perspective, 28 March, by Gilbert Achcar

... Can anyone claiming to belong to the left just ignore a popular movement's plea for protection, even by means of imperialist bandit-cops, when the type of protection requested is not one through which control over their country could be exerted? Certainly not, by my understanding of the left. No real progressive could just ignore the uprising's request for protection — unless, as is too frequent among the Western left, they just ignore the circumstances and the imminent threat of mass slaughter, paying attention to the whole situation only once their own government got involved, thus setting off their (normally healthy, I should add) reflex of opposing the involvement. In every situation when anti-imperialists opposed Western-led military interventions using massacre prevention as their rationale, they pointed to alternatives showing that the Western governments' choice of resorting to force only stemmed from imperialist designs. ...

There's nothing moral about Nato's intervention in Libya, 23-3-2011

The attacks on Libya risk a bloody stalemate and are a threat to the region. The alternative has to be a negotiated settlement

Stop Bombing Libya, 22-3-2011

... “All necessary measures” should first have been peaceful measures to settle the conflict. But peaceful means were not exhausted before Obama began bombing Libya. A high level international team – consisting of representatives from the Arab League, the Organization of African Unity, and the UN Secretary General – should have been dispatched to Tripoli to attempt to negotiate a real cease-fire, and set up a mechanism for elections and for protecting civilians. ...

... There is no doubt that Muammar Qaddafi has been brutally repressing Libyans in order to maintain his power. ...

De mediadood van de Libische opstand, 18-3-2011

... Hoe kan het eigenlijk dat de meest prominente media zo snel wegtrokken uit Libië de afgelopen dagen? Was het niet meer spannend genoeg? Waren er niet genoeg doden en gewonden? Was er geen budget voor Japan én Libië tegelijk? Met het vertrek van de media uit Libië gaf men een signaal aan Khadafi. "De wereld geeft er niet om, doe maar op." En hij reageert sneller dan een havik, nog voor je 'no-fly zone' kan uitspreken. ...