March 18, 2011
FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS
Muammar Qaddafi – Qaddafi, Gaddafi, Ghaddafi, Gadhafi, however you spell the tyrant’s name – has to be the only beneficiary of the cruel hardships being felt by the Japanese people in the wake of the horrific and historic devastation of Japan. As the world turns its collective eye toward aiding a genuinely venerable people in their time of need, Qaddafi has taken the initiative to double-down on his efforts to extinguish all opposition to his reign of terror, forty-two-plus years running, in Libya. That he is able to do so serves as testimony to the uselessness of the United Nations and the gutless demeanor of leadership in the West.
Before I begin let me state that the people of Japan are most deserving of global attention and aid in this, their most dire of times. That they persevere through the unimaginable chaos in a way that knows no looting, no incivility, that they can maintain order and discipline in a time where other cultures descend into narcissistic bedlam, stands as a testament to their culture. The world, each and every country – no matter their strength of military or wealth, should take notice of the quintessential definition of a civil society. May God take them, in their time of need, into his embrace.
But as we look on in awe at the strength and performance of the Japanese people, unadulterated evil can be seen in the hearts of men, and weakness can be found in the leadership of nations founded on principles that demand the protection of and facilitation to freedom and liberty for every man, woman and child, anywhere and everywhere on the face of the planet.
By now, everyone is familiar with the series of revolutions that have taken place across the Middle East and Northern Africa. From Tunisia and Egypt, to Yemen and Bahrain, upheaval and revolt are taking hold. While the argument rages in the West as to the forces behind the catalyst for these insurrections, it cannot be denied that in most cases a despotic leader is being challenged, and in many cases driven from power.
I am not naïve to the fact that well organized and potent forces, nefarious in nature, have the same opportunity as pro-democracy and pro-freedom movements in these countries, to eventually rise to power. In fact, an honest assessment of the situation mandates that the outcome, at this point, is far from certain; that the proverbial coin of decision is twirling in the air. But with the uncertainty that this situation brings also comes opportunity, and championing that opportunity – an opportunity to see liberty and freedom rise in a region that has known neither but for fleeting glimpses – are brave men and women who have gambled with their lives, and the lives of their families, just for the chance to achieve a goal that just a few years ago seemed generations away.
In Libya, a country ruled by a crazed despot in Muammar Qaddafi, just such a battle for freedom is taking place.
To touch on a few of Qaddafi’s “accomplishments”:
· Qaddafi has often had dissidents executed publicly; the executions themselves broadcast on state television channels.
· Qaddafi has ordered his network of operatives to assassinate dozens of his critics, not only in Libya, but around the world. Amnesty International listed at least 25 assassinations between 1980 and 1987. Qaddafi has asserted that assassinations could be carried out even as dissidents were on pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca. He has exacted assassinations in the United Kingdom and in the United States.
· According to the Freedom of the Press Index, published by Freedom House, Libya is the most censored country in the whole of the Middle East and North Africa. In fact, for Libyans, engaging in political conversations with foreigners will garner them three years in prison, if, in fact, it doesn’t get them killed.
· Qaddafi has sponsored international terrorist groups in the Palestinian occupied territories and the Philippines, and supported non-aligned terror groups such as the IRA and Euro-Terror groups in France, Germany, the United States and Latin America.
· And recent evidence indicates that Qaddafi himself ordered the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that blew-up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, many of them Americans.
To be sure, Muammar Qaddafi is a very bad man; a terrorist; a despotic tyrant who murders and terrorizes.
Today, Qaddafi is leading the fight – or, rather, hiding behind the ruthlessness of his loyal military leaders as they lead the fight – against rebel factions that have “bet it all” on this moment in time to affect the end of Qaddafi’s reign of terror. They have resigned from political positions, defected from the military and put themselves and their families in harm’s way for the opportunity to extinguish a lifetime of fear, oppression and tyranny. And, so far, they are going it alone.
Videos of Libyan people in Benghazi pleading for help – pleading to Barack Obama for help – as pro-Qaddafi forces, some consisting of mercenaries from other African nations, shoot people in the streets, beg the chilling question, why isn’t the West – and in particular, the United States, and specifically the Obama Administration – doing something to support those who simply want freedom, or, at least, the opportunity to fight for freedom? In Benghazi, many have no weapons and rearmaments are few and far between simply because there are no supply lines and no one to supply them if there were.
The situation brings to mind the plight of the Green Movement in Iran, whose brave young people took to the streets, expecting support – tangible support – from the West after years of promises about alliances should they have the courage to rise up against the murderous fist of the mullah’s oppression. To date, that alliance consists of President Barack Obama declaring:
“Ah, it’s not productive, given the history of US and Iranian relations ta (sic) be seen as meddling – the US President meddling – in, ah, Iranian elections. What I will repeat, ah, and what I said yesterday, is that when I see violence directed at peaceful protesters...when I see peaceful descent being suppressed...wherever that takes place, ah, it is of concern to me and it’s of concern to the American people. That is not, ah, how governments should interact with their people.”
Meanwhile, pro-Ahmadinejad basiji took to the streets beating and killing Green Movement, pro-freedom protesters, the same protesters who had been led to believe that forces from the West would be there should they summon the daring to rise-up against tyranny.
Embarrassingly, forces from the West – tangible support from the United States government, the world’s last “superpower” – never arrived. The Green Movement continues today, but without any expectation that the Western voices that cry loudest about liberty, democracy and freedom, will provide anything but the rhetoric that had led them to slaughter in the past.
In Eastern Libya, many pro-freedom and anti-Qaddafi factions have come to the conclusion that no help is coming at all, that the rhetoric of freedom, democracy and liberty, espoused by people such as President Obama is just that, rhetoric; hollow words meant to falsely elevate political stature rather than facilitate the founding principles of Americanism.
I will give the proper due to Britain’s David Cameron and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy for at least trying to advance action where Libya is concerned. But, in the end, their best intentions stopped short of ordering unilateral action for fear of being condemned by the cowards who sit as polished desks inside the United Nations.
You see, the miscreants of Turtle Bay need to talk about it. They need to come to a consensus as to whether it is a good thing to diminish Muammar Qaddafi’s killing power by establishing a “no-fly zone” so that Qaddafi’s air forces can’t bomb and strafe rebel pro-freedom forces and civilians who just happen to live in the contested regions. This is what the reprobates of the globalist elite at the United Nations do best; they talk about it.
The United Nations, and all who claim the organization has worth beyond providing aid to Third World countries – where consequently, warlords usually confiscate the aid and use the facilitation to that aid to lord over the people – have talked about taking action in Rwanda (1,000,000 dead), Iraqi Kurdistan (between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 dead), Congo (5,400,000 dead), Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, talk, talk, talk and more talk.
This pathetic cadre of over-paid, stuffed-shirt degenerates is no stranger to corruption either. Oil-for-Food lined Saddam Hussein’s pockets under-the-table, as well as the pockets of those who wielded veto power on the UN Security Council (ahem, the French culprit is now facing trial for corruption when he was mayor of Paris). And then there is the true crime against humanity perpetrated at the hands of former UN Secretary Kofi Anan in his gross mishandling of the Rwandan Genocide.
Through it all, Pres. Obama abdicates the responsibility of his role as leader of the free world in that he is not insisting that action replace rhetoric; that leaders lead the fight to aid those who simply beg for the opportunity to fight for their own freedom, to have a fighting chance to experience liberty.
And as they talk at Turtle Bay, drinking their purified bottled water, eating their Kobe beef and criticizing Japan’s nuclear community for having the gall to build nuclear reactors so close to the ocean (an ocean, by the by, that is serving as a water source for their last resort operations in averting a meltdown), Qaddafi inches closer to Benghazi, the location for a literal “last stand” for pro-freedom fighters who had the courage to stand up for liberty, for freedom and justice for all.
To be condemned for taking unilateral action by the troglodytes of the United Nations would be to achieve a great honor for me. I truly understand how George W. Bush sleeps at night. I really do.
On March 17th, at what could be considered the eleventh hour, the UN Security Council voted to establish a no-fly zone over Libya, authorizing the use of any and all appropriate force.
On March 17th, just after the UN Security Council’s declaration, Muammar Qaddafi issued a statement saying, “No more hesitation. The moment of truth has come...There will be no mercy. Our troops will be coming to Benghazi tonight."
And the clock is ticking...
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Frank Salvato is the managing editor for The New Media Journal. He serves at the Executive Director of the Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(C)(3) research and education initiative.
