War in Libya

[Kirsten]

It began last night. What do you think, does it scare you? I hope it will soon be over, and doesn't take too many lifes...

Nations bombing Libya are 'terrorists,' Gadhafi says

[Alysser]

I don't think anyone enjoys war. I ,personally, don't. But if there's one thing I hate more than war it rulers like Gadhafi. He makes me utterly sick and I hope he is killed immediately.

[Kirsten]

Well, yes, looks there is no other way to stop him. It's horrible what he's doing to his own people.

[pomtzu]

I don't understand what took so long. He should have been wiped out years ago.
I hope the U.S. can stay out - we already have enough war that we're dealing with.



ETA:
Oops - a day late and a dollar short on this one.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

I can't help wishing we could finish at least ONE war before we get involved in another one.

[momcat]

I honestly don't know how I feel about any of this. Ghadafi is a madman and must be stopped. When this first started up a few weeks ago, on a news clip he said his people love him yet he massacres them. He has said he'll fight to the very end, perhaps the only solution is his assassination. But if he is ousted, who or what will take his place?

I was in college during the height of Viet-Nam. A political science professor I had said don't look for WW-III in Viet-Nam, look to the middle east. That was in 1969 and it's starting to look like he was right.

I'm afraid, I'm very afraid

[Grace]

I can't help wishing we could finish at least ONE war before we get involved in another one.

Oh boy, I so agree with you on this.

[Kirsten]

I was in college during the height of Viet-Nam. A political science professor I had said don't look for WW-III in Viet-Nam, look to the middle east. That was in 1969 and it's starting to look like he was right.

I'm afraid, I'm very afraid

Hmm, yes, I wouldn't be surprised if it comes to that one day. There is so much turmoil in that region, for so many decades now. Maybe it's just that I don't understand the mentality of these people very well, but it seems to me there's such a high aggression level, always ready to explode. Scary.

[Asiel]

Gadhafi more than scares me. It seems all we hear about lately is violence and more violence, wars, destruction etc.
I hope we don't get dragged into this one too, enough on our plates, the whole world seems to be self destructing.

[lizbud]

This is a map of the countries & area undergoing civil unrest. Many have
high unemployment rates.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/...x.html?hpt=T2#

[wombat2u2004]

Gadhafi more than scares me. It seems all we hear about lately is violence and more violence, wars, destruction etc.
I hope we don't get dragged into this one too, enough on our plates, the whole world seems to be self destructing.

I don't think it matters who is in power in the Middle East, the outcome is always the same. I read about the trouble in Sudan, the mass unemployment etc etc. Sometimes I just don't understand what is really going on, their constant wars with each other because of differences within their SAME religion, pulls these countries backwards at an alarming rate.
My next door neighbour sells agricultural equipment to the Sudan, and regularly goes there to show them how to operate machinery and put stuff together, and he also advises them on agricultural methods. A year later he returns and the machinery is still where he left it. Rusting away.
In his own words, he will tell you how lazy and useless these people are, they just will not get up off their backsides unless it is to protest something.

[Asiel]

I don't think it matters who is in power in the Middle East, the outcome is always the same. I read about the trouble in Sudan, the mass unemployment etc etc. Sometimes I just don't understand what is really going on, their constant wars with each other because of differences within their SAME religion, pulls these countries backwards at an alarming rate.
My next door neighbour sells agricultural equipment to the Sudan, and regularly goes there to show them how to operate machinery and put stuff together, and he also advises them on agricultural methods. A year later he returns and the machinery is still where he left it. Rusting away.
In his own words, he will tell you how lazy and useless these people are, they just will not get up off their backsides unless it is to protest something.

Have to agree with those countries always being in some kind of unrest or other. They always have been and the new generations learn the same things so I don't think anyhting will ever change.
I can just pray that none of us get dragged into it , we have no business there except to anger them at us. So many problems to solve in our own country, we don't need more.
Scary to think how many of people from these countries are immigrating to our country and seemingly forcing us to change our laws to accomodate them.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

I have a feeling we are already in it up to our eyeballs. We have to stay in it until their is a regime change or Gadhafi will be even worse to the ones who rebelled against him.

[Kirsten]

I have a feeling we are already in it up to our eyeballs. We have to stay in it until their is a regime change or Gadhafi will be even worse to the ones who rebelled against him.

As far as I understood this, the countries involved are pretty much at variance when it comes to their goals in this war. Some say they're not going for Gadhafi, or a regime change, while others obviously want this. I've got a feeling that this may become pretty ugly...

[ChrisH]

I tend to agree with this feller's view.

Why can't we just let the Libyans fight it out (...and then make friends with the winners)

Last updated at 11:26 AM on 20th March 2011

Politics seems to have become a sort of mental illness. We have no bloody business in Libya, and no idea what we hope to achieve there.

We are daily told that we have no money to spare. We have just scrapped a large part of our Navy.

Our Army is stuck in an Afghan war whose point nobody can explain. And now we have set out on a course that could drag us into a long, gory brawl in North Africa.

And yet, when the Prime Minister announces this folly he is praised. Why? Partly it is because we all watch too much TV. Its reports simplify, then exaggerate.

Reporters, much like politicians, like to feel they are helping to make history, and get excited by subjects they knew nothing about until last Wednesday.

Before we know where we are, we are taking sides in quarrels we don’t understand. Who are the Libyan rebels? What do they want? Why do we love them so?

I’ve no idea, and nor has Mr Cameron, as we discovered when he (yes, it was him, not poor William Hague) sent the SAS to see them and they were welcomed with pitchforks and mockery.

The only sensible policy in Libya is to wait and see who wins, and then make friends with them. If you think this heartless, you are of course right. Foreign policy is heartless. Nice countries end up being conquered or going bankrupt. But it may be no more heartless than our kindly interference.

I pray that this episode ends quickly and cleanly. Perhaps it will. But we cannot know.
What if our humanitarian bombs and missiles accidentally kill women and children (which is almost certain)? What if air attacks and distant shelling fail to stop Gaddafi’s forces? Will we then send in troops? Who knows? I don’t. The Prime Minister doesn’t.

Some of the longest wars in history started with small-scale intervention, for a purpose that looked good and achievable, and ended up ruining millions of lives. The Soviet takeover of Afghanistan in 1979 ended with countless innocents driven into refugee camps, and the collapse of the Soviet state itself. It also left Afghanistan as a worse snake pit than before.

Why are we suddenly so worried about Muammar Gaddafi?

It’s fashionable just now to get very hoity-toity about him. But until recently many of the war enthusiasts were rather keen on him, for supposedly heeding the fate of Saddam and changing his behaviour. Liberal idealists might also consider that Gaddafi is one of the heroes of their hero Nelson Mandela (there is film on YouTube of a touching embrace between these two).

There’s no principle at stake here, or we would be bombing Bahrain too, and demanding the withdrawal of the Saudi troops who arrived there in such sinister fashion last Monday. But Bahrain’s the base of the U.S. 5th Fleet, so we won’t be doing that. And as I’ve said here before, this supposed objection to rulers killing their own people is not consistent. Sometimes – as in China, Bahrain and Syria – we’re happy to let them do it.

So why are we rattling the drums of war and fuelling up for a fight in a place where our national interests would be best served by staying out?

If the Arab League members want to intervene, they’ve got plenty of weapons not currently being used to attack Israel. I can only conclude that our Government is historically ignorant, politically dim, immune to good advice and swollen with personal vanity.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/ar...-winners.html#