generalspeaking

Blunt Force Trauma

NATO just gave Libya a public relations gift. It was only a matter of time, after all. While the Libyan regime claimed in the past that NATO bombing had struck civilians, this time they really did. And where, of all places, but in a stronghold of political dissenters, part of the population that detests Moammar Gadhafi, and supports NATO's intervention. And this is what they get for it.

They're not alone, though. The incidence of 'friendly fire' where NATO bombers have struck convoys comprised of rebel militias, the very groups whom NATO is there to protect, have become quite irritating to the rebels. How many strikes and they're out? Well, three strikes so far on rebel convoys, and this fourth on a multiple home housing 17 people of an extended family in east Tripoli.

"NATO regrets the loss of innocent civilian lives", announced the commander of the Libyan mission. Initially it was said they were targeting a munitions depot, but there was no such installation there. So on the second occasion blame was given to a possible "weapons system failure". A verbal band-aid on the reality of strained relations emerging between NATO and the rebels.

Remember back when the rebels were urging NATO to commit, and when NATO finally agreed, with the go-ahead of the United Nations, all the cheering that erupted from the rebel ranks? It would be only a matter of a few weeks, they'd march on Tripoli, with NATO watching their backs for them, and remove the King of Kings.

Foreign reporters, kept on a leash and trotted out whenever the regime wants to get some press, were hauled over to the site. To witness the three-storey building collapsed in mounds of rubble, and bodies being removed from the interior. At Tripoli Central Hospital the mangled bodies of a baby and a child were displayed for the shocked newsmen.

And the regime's propaganda machine was fuelled with fresh accusations of deliberate targeting of civilians by NATO to break the iron will of Libya, which will not bend, which will defend to its dying breath its magnificent, beloved leader whose only care is for the welfare of his people.

The hard truth: in conflict situations disasters occur, people are killed, and though the deaths of non-combatants is dreadful, it's also inevitable. War is war.

Labels: Conflict, NATO, World Crises

posted by Pieface @ Monday, June 20, 2011