Libya: Sometimes It’s Right To Fight!

When your neighbor is being assaulted or abused do you turn up the television set and pretend that you don’t hear? If you come across a child being attacked in the street, do you simply put your head down and walk on by?  Or, just as bad, do you stand uselessly by and simply yell “stop” and allow the attack to continue?

While peace, and peaceful means, should always be the choice in our interactions, crisis resolution, and problem solving, unless we accept the responsibility to enforce and police such a peace we, as a society, will always be the victim of tyrants. Just as there will always be those who, given the opportunity, will seek to exploit and oppress the vulnerable, there must always be the courage and determination to oppose them.

The Libyan people are no less our moral obligation to defend than is our neighbor. The global community that gets so much lip service suddenly becomes eagerly divided when it may incur investment or sacrifice. To invoke national borders, and respect for sovereign space, as an excuse not to render aid to those pleading for assistance, is no less lacking in intestinal fortitude than claiming that the fence dividing your yard from another  provides them with the right to continue their abuses while their victims scream out for help.

To complain of the financial cost of providing needed aid to the people of Libya is no different than refusing to aid the helpless child in the street for fear that you may be required to miss time at work for any ensuing police testimony or litigation.  It’s all excuses to avoid doing what you know is the right thing, but which you fear, whether it be out of honest cowardice or calculated selfishness.

Yes, each Tomahawk Missile cost is $1 mil.  So what.  What is the acceptable price tag for the freedom and self-determination of the people of Libya?  What is the price tag you are willing to put on your own freedom?  The only way to ensure ones own rights is to stand up and ensure the rights of all.

Pacifism, as an unconditional rule, is a selfish luxury not afforded by the victims of violence. Those oppressed by tyrants may have little tolerance for the demands of peaceful resolution, and unwillingness to ‘get involved,’ from the citizens of countries that support such dictators and provide a home, with aid and sustenance, to the corporations that profit from their exploitation. Thousands of lives are put in jeopardy, and lost, every day because of the actions and choices of the governments and corporations supported by those who would attempt to deny aid to the people of Libya on the basis of their morals. Pacifism becomes a despot’s best friend when applied this way.

To simply paint any military action with the same wide brush stroke because it happens in a similar geographical region, or in an area occupied by people of a similar cultural or ethnic background, is disingenuous at best. Libya has absolutely no similarities to Iraq unless you view the situation through an ethnocentric lens. Iraq and Afghanistan are illegitimate wars of choice.   Libya is a war of necessity.  Action in Libya is in response to the request of the people being victimized by a dictator and is under the supervision of the international community.  Iraq and Afghanistan are expansionist wars of aggression opposed by that same international community.

Qaddafi can no longer claim to legitimately govern the people of Libya.  The people of Libya have voiced their democratic opinion through their actions and their resistance to his tyrannical rule.  They have told the abuser to leave and have called on the international community to ensure his eviction.  The people of Libya want a restraining order against Muammar and they have called on their neighbors in the international community to assist them in imposing it. Do you respond or do you pull the blinds and tell yourself it’s not your problem?  Do you stop the blow from landing on their face or do you explain to them that their pain is justified by your self-righteous pacifism.

A promised ceasefire by Qaddafi is not an acceptable a reason to sacrifice the people of Libya to his will.   His crimes have already been committed and their freedom must be ensured.  Just as the abuser or attacker mentioned above does not receive clemency based on a promise not to repeat their offenses, nor should Muammar.  Qaddafi must be deposed and required to answer for his crimes.

Perhaps we can justify our callous disregard for the suffering of the Libyan people by pointing out the possible negatives that may occur from the involvement of countries with agendas of their own.  The corporate interests of big-oil that give so much money to American politicians are certainly worth concern.  But, rather than using it as an excuse for apathy it should simply be a caution against what cannot be allowed.  The international community cannot simply unleash the dogs of war and then allow them to become worse than that which they were set upon.  We must ensure through our vigilance that this is not allowed to happen rather than attempt to avoid it through our own irresponsibility or cowardice.

War is never a good thing.  It is never glorious, but, in certain situations, it is necessary.  And, if prosecuted in the defense of the vulnerable and for the protection and security of their equal rights to freedom, justice, and  equality, it can even be noble.  Libya is one of those situations.  Your neighbor is crying out to be freed from abuse and exploitation.  Will you help them or will you simply continue to look for excuses not to?

Editor’s Note: Pictures 2,3,4, courtesy of B.R.Q. photostream.