Almost all wars can be justified by pointing out how bad the other side is. All capitalist governments do unpleasant things: that is the inescapable nature of capitalism. So whenever two capitalist powers go to war, each can make a strong case against the other, by alleging how shocked they are about all the repulsive things the enemy has done. When hostility ripens into open warfare, each side's ruling class does even more terrible things to the other side, destroying its towns and slaughtering its people. This gives both belligerent countries even more propaganda points to make. Before long, each side is claiming that it only started fighting in the first place because (in some miraculous way) it could see what barbarous actions its enemies were going to be guilty of in the war. In other words, the propaganda of each hostile country claims that it only went to war because of the atrocities committed during the war on the other side!
An example is that the Libyan diplomat Mustafa Shaban told the UN Human Rights Council that the rebels were responsible for "acts of cannibalism".
There has however been numerous claims that Ghadaffi forces has a policy of rape to impose a reign of terror. The pro-war media, of course, highlights these allegations. For instance the International Criminal Court's Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that there was evidence the Libyan authorities bought "Viagra-type" medicines and gave them to troops as part of the official rape policy.
However, we should perhaps heed this report by Cherif Bassiouni, who is leading a UN rights inquiry into the situation in Libya, and who casts doubt upon the claim and suggests it is part of a "massive hysteria".
Ghadaffi has been just as bad as many other rulers across the world (including many with whom Britain is allied). If you want to have done with barbarous dictators like Ghadaffi, it's a waste of time to go to war: others will spring up everywhere. Get rid of capitalism, the fertile soil which produces endless numbers of dictators and atrocities. No matter what the real or alleged atrocities of the "bad" side however, wars are quarrels over control of territory and resources between different sections of the capitalist class — business rivalry by other means. The working class can have no interest in such matters. The result of a "just" war is the same as a "bad" war — we get the hammering. The only "worthwhile" war is the class war—the fight against war.
1 comment:
sometimes you just have to rage against the dying of the light, war, abuse of human rights, exploitation of the workers. These are the products of a capitalist state, to fight it we must respond with kindness and an open heart we cannot condemn our enemies for different opinions. If we do what does that make us?
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