11th Anniversary of U.S./NATO War on Libya
March 19, 2011

International Gangsterism in Name of “Protecting Civilians!”

Eleven years ago, the UN decided to use “all means necessary” to get rid of the Gaddafi regime in Libya and install a regime to the liking of the U.S. which was colluding and contending with the European powers to control that strategic country in north Africa.

The history of U.S. wars of aggression and occupation to that point already clearly showed that this UN authorization, via UN Security Council Resolution 1973, was not intended to defend civilians but to advance the self-serving interests of the U.S. on whose side Canada intervened. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) pointed out at the time that “any suggestion that humanitarianism motivates the likes of the U.S., Britain, France, Germany or Canada is ridiculous. So too are suggestions that the resolution not only enjoys Arab support but is passed at their request. To believe that the likes of reactionaries such as the House of Saud represent Arab opinion or that the current secretary of the Arab League Amr Moussa speaks for the Arab League is ludicrous. Moussa has an interest in currying favour with the U.S. and former colonial powers so as to advance his bid to become a new ruler of Egypt and can in no way be considered a defender of UN principles.”

The Lebanese representative put forward the resolution but he had no credibility either. This person had been sitting as Lebanon’s representative since January 2010 despite the fact that in January 2011, the Lebanese government was brought down and had yet to be re-formed. This representative was seen as a tool to disarm and isolate the Lebanese resistance to Israeli aggression in Lebanon. What Lebanese government he represented was questionable.

CPC(M-L) decried the UN decision to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. It said, “Knowing the destructive power in the hands of the U.S., NATO and European powers, the world’s people can predict the devastation they can expect from the enforcement of the so-called no-fly zone. Any interference in what has clearly become a civil war in Libya no matter what the pretext does not serve the cause of the peoples or peace or stability. It is foreign interference to set in motion forces which can usurp power by force which has been proven to be the reason why the peoples in any part of the world are not able to sort out the problems they face through their own efforts, using their own thought material and by mustering their own resources. Once the foreign dictate is imposed, calamity follows and everything is done to stop the people organizing themselves into a political movement which realizes their own demands.”

CPC(M-L) also condemned with utter contempt “the hypocrisy of the U.S., Canada, and European powers which tries to justify the UN Resolution against Libya on the basis of concocted stories about protecting civilians, but do not apply the same zeal to defend the civilians coming under the gunfire of Saudi Arabian tanks in Bahrain. Far from safeguarding peace and the security of all, this is international gangsterism which must be opposed.”

CPC(M-L) also denounced the “Obama doctrine” to provide the U.S. with a new raison d’état of applying military might against “evil dictators” such as Gaddafi, which it called “U.S. Outreach,” but implementing “Regime Alteration” when dealing with “friendly dictators” such as the al-Khalifas in Bahrain and the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia. “In the case of the former, the Obama administration will murder to protect democracy and in the latter case, its friendly dictators will do the murdering for the U.S. There is nothing new there,” CPC(M-L) wrote.

Raising the slogans, Hands Off Libya! and No to International Gangsterism in the Name of “Protecting Civilians!” CPC(M-L) called on Canadian workers and their allies to lead the anti-war movement to take a categorical stand against the UN resolution.

Anti-war protests across Canada in March and April 2011.

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