War Never Changes

In case you've missed the news over the past 2 days, I just thought I'd remind you that we're technically at war with Libya now. 

Yep, we're being dragged into a 'coalition' (once again) which aims to stop Col Gadaffi's reign of terror. Deja-vu, anyone? 

I was watching This Morning today (it was on in the gym, I had no choice), and they had a rather interesting debate going on about this. I forget the name of the man on there, but he raised the point that Gaddaffi has been in power for 42 years, and has been just as crazy as he is now and yet all of a sudden, he kills 1,000 of his own people and we can't accept him anymore. Didn't he kill 270 people from other places when he ordered theLockerbie Bombing in 1988? A further 230 people during theBerlin Diskotheque Bombing in 1986 and 170 during theUTA Flight 772 bombing in 1989 (both of which he was directly linked to)? He has supported and actively encouraged acts of terrorism made by a number of different militant groups around the world, has allied himself with political groups and individuals responsible for atrocities and war crimes (such as Slobodan Milošević), and has been responsible for attempts to radicalise Maories and Australian Aboriginals. To top it all off, he's also paid for meetings with the BNP. So now we have a problem with this guy?

It's a massive tragedy, what is happening to innocent Libyans- don't get me wrong. Everyone should have the right to protest against their government- especially one as corrupt and downright nasty as the Gadaffi regime, and I hope they get the fair and democratic government they so obviously deserve. My problem here is why other countries have to be dragged in. I suppose for the US and UK it's long overdue retribution for Lockerbie, Berlin Diskotheque and Flight 772, but again, as I said earlier they've had almost 30 years when they could have done this. Our forces are arguably stretched enough as it is, being still placed in Afghanistan- do we really have the resources to engage in another potential long-term conflict? Let's face it, Gadaffi isn't going to move unless he's killed - a action that the UN are not actually allowed to suggest, as today's decision has revealed. It took 3 years until Saddam Hussein was captured and excecuted. How long will it take with Gadaffi? If we get dragged into Libya, we can probably expect to be there for a while.

Also, why Libya? Egypt overthrew it's government recently, and 384 people died and 6,000 were injured. Did we at any point intervene? No. Yemen is also having an attempt at a revolution that is proving to be just as violent as Egypt, but again, we're not involving ourselves too much apart from suggesting British nationals should leave. Is there some other reason why we're there? Isn't it funny how we're still running out of oil and Libya relies on it for exports? 

A happy coincidence? Maybe. I can't help thinking, though, that nobody has learned anything from Iraq, and that we're going to end up being in there for longer than we intend, all because of a coalition and the UN. It's amazing how world leaders seem to develop amnesia whenever the price of oil is at risk. How many more Middle Eastern crises will it take before we learn to keep our nose out of other country's politics.

Just goes to show, war never changes.