How novel! In the aftermath of the failed UN resolution, CNN reports that the administration, presumably in hopes of pacifying the growing outrage in the tumblr-sphere, has begun to explore the feasibility of military intervention in Syria.
This is deliciously ironic. Russia and China vetoed the UNSC resolution because they were justifiably peeved at how NATO carried out the Libya operation. The original resolution called for a no-fly zone; NATO interpreted this to mean that they had free reign to carry out airstrikes on on Gaddafi’s forces and civilians loyal to the incumbent regime.
Now the spectre of humanitarian intervention looms large once again! Unfortunately the crude Orwellian doublespeak of the term often remains buried underneath our deep desire for moral certitude. Look no further than Libya, a country that has mysteriously dropped off the media’s radar after we heroically rescued it from oriental despotism. Gaddafi was evil, the triumphant rebels stood for all that is good in the world; BHL, the architect of a worldwide democratic revolution, sits in a Paris loft regaling his awe-struck guests with tales of his exploits in Carthage. Fin.
Conveniently elided is the the fact that NATO’s carpet-bombing of Sirte alone killed more civilians than the Assad regime has massacred in Homs thus far. And the fact that the first order of business for the victorious Libyan rebels was to systematically eliminate black Africans in Libya who were universally suspected of being Gaddafi loyalists. Even now, bands of militias continue to clash around the country, evidence that a far-reaching hostility towards the Gaddafi regime has now been supplanted by other, more parochial enmities.
Assad is a bastard and the international community should pressure him to put an end to the brutal violence his army is perpetrating against its own people . Unfortunately it looks like concerted international action is unfeasible at this point, and it’s our own goddamned fault.
