R2PAQ (‘Responsibility to Protect Al-Qaeda’)
In the absence of any evident national interest justification for bombing Libya, the Obama administration is said to have been motivated by the so-called responsibility to protect — or “R2P” per the wonkish English acronym. In American discussions, “R2P” has quickly come to be associated with Obama advisor Samantha Power. But “R2P” did not emerge full-grown from the brain of Samantha Power. Rather, it grew out of the pseudo-legal doctrine of “the right of humanitarian intervention,” which was developed by mostly European academics in the 1990s in order to justify the NATO interventions in the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts.
It was undoubtedly in recognition of his role in promoting “humanitarian intervention” – or “l’ingérence humanitaire” in the French original — that the “French doctor” Bernard Kouchner would be named the first head of the UN protectorate in Kosovo, following the conclusion of the 78-day NATO bombing campaign that drove Yugoslav forces from the then province. The point of the “right of humanitarian intervention” was to qualify several fundamental guarantees and prohibitions enshrined in the UN Charter: namely, the respect of state sovereignty and territorial integrity and the fundamental prohibition on the use of force in international relations.
In a nutshell, the doctrine of “humanitarian intervention” held that the aforesaid founding principles of the UN are all very well and good, but when civilian lives are at stake in a domestic conflict foreign states or coalitions of states may intervene anyway. The “responsibility to protect” appears on first glance to go even further, converting the right of states to intervene into their “responsibility” to do so. On closer inspection of the relevant UN texts devoted to “R2P,” the authorization of international military action is far more hedged and the primary “responsibility to protect” in fact devolves on states vis-à-vis their own citizens.
But, be that as it may, nothing could more clearly illustrate the complete arbitrariness to which the application of “R2P” is subject in practice than the current intervention in Libya. The invocation of “R2P” in the Libyan case is based on media reports of attacks on civilians by Libyan government forces at the outset of the unrest in February. Never mind that there were also reports of attacks on civilians by Iranian government forces following the Iranian elections in June 2009. Never mind that there are reports of massive use of violence against civilians in Syria at present. Never mind that the United States itself is constantly accused of killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Does no one remember the WikiLeaks “Collateral Murder” video?
Never mind, finally, that the United States and its NATO allies do in fact kill civilians. Even when the victims of their attacks are predominantly civilians, it is generally assumed that the targets were legitimate military targets, nonetheless, or that the attacks were the result of regrettable mistakes committed in the inevitable “fog of war.” Both of the two explanations have been used, for instance, to justify the September 2009 German-ordered American air strike near Kunduz, Afghanistan, that left scores of civilians dead.
In November 2004, incidentally, French forces in the Ivoirian city of Abidjan opened fire on a crowd of anti-French protestors killing at least seven people and wounding dozens. By virtually all accounts other than that of the French government, the protestors were unarmed. Around the same time, French helicopter gunships opened fire on civilian protestors elsewhere in Abidjan killing many more. (For a detailed reconstruction, see my “The Black Tuesday of the French Army.”)
As it so happens, Muammar al-Gaddafi denies that Libyan forces have purposely targeted civilians. Unlike in the cases of Bosnia and Kosovo, there has not been even the pretense of a neutral international investigation to determine the circumstances of the alleged attacks or indeed whether they even occurred at all.
Still more to the point, however, in recent days it has emerged that the anti-Gaddafi rebel-forces from eastern Libya are not only openly supported by al-Qaeda, but indeed themselves include Qaeda-linked elements. I first discussed the evidence for al-Qaeda’s involvement in the rebellion in my “Saving the Libyan Islamists.” In the meanwhile, as reported on PJM on Friday, rebel commander Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi has admitted not only that he was detained by U.S. forces in 2002 after “fighting against the foreign invasion” in Afghanistan, but also that he later recruited Libyans to fight with al-Qaeda in Iraq.
As discussed in my earlier report, according to captured al-Qaeda personnel records, al-Hasadi’s hometown of Darnah sent more foreign fighters to fight with al-Qaeda in Iraq than any other foreign city or town. Al-Hasadi has noted, moreover, that some of the fighters he sent to Iraq have since returned to Libya and are fighting with the rebel forces whose path to the West is presently being cleared by American, French, and British missiles.
This is to say that in the name of the “responsibility to protect” civilians, the United States and its European partners have entered into a de facto military alliance with an organization that famously makes no distinction between combatants and non-combatants and whose most characteristic modus operandi consists precisely of terror attacks on civilian targets. Unlike Muammar al-Gaddafi — or, for that matter, American or French military authorities — al-Qaeda does not deny targeting civilians. Targeting civilians is what al-Qaeda does.
The number of civilians deliberately killed in Qaeda-linked terror attacks over the last decade rises at least into the tens of thousands and likely into the hundreds of thousands. These include, of course, the nearly 3000 civilians murdered in the 9/11 attacks, the over 200 murdered in the 2002 Bali bombings, the nearly 200 murdered in the Madrid train bombings, the over 50 murdered in the London transport bombings, and thousands murdered over many years in Iraq in a seemingly incessant stream of suicide attacks. Some of the Iraqi victims will undoubtedly have been killed by al-Qaeda recruits sent to Iraq by none other than Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi.
It is notable that in all the years that al-Qaeda has been spreading terror in Iraq, the “responsibility to protect” has virtually never been invoked in order to demand the protection of Iraqi civilians. On the contrary, the deaths of Iraqis at the hands of al-Qaeda has typically been construed as somehow America’s responsibility and used indeed as an argument for hastening the withdrawal of American troops.
The R2P is truly one brain dead idea. Much evil will come out of that one.
It is too bad the ‘leaders’ haven’t enough sense to see where this path will lead.
I don’t know why we have so many fools and idiots in power. I wish we didn’t.
Oh, they know where it leads, alright.
It leads to Israel.
It might also lead here. Take note: in Obama’s speech to the U.N. he said that he believes “there should be U.N. observers at the elections of EVERY member of the U.N.”
By acting under Powell’s “responsibility to protect” doctrine and in response to U.N. ‘directives’ instead of U.S. constitution, each step sets precedents for submitting us to them.
How about a resolution by House and Senate that “it is the sense of Congress that we do NOT agree.”
Holder (for the first time) gave a report to the U.N. Human Rights Committee listing ‘abuses’ in the U.S. that INCLUDED Arizona’s new law.
The Mexican President’s first translation of his speech critising the Arizona law, said “when the President asked me”…enough said.
There is no evidence that the opposition to Gaddafi is al Qaida. Of course AQ is going to attempt to exploit this power vacuum. They will do so in Yemen, as well. And the Muslim Brotherhood will attempt to do so in Syria. That does not mean they are the bulk of the opposition, or even 1% of it.
And the Muslim Brotherhood isn’t taking over in Egypt. You don’t know shiite.
Terry, I didn’t mention Egypt, did I? Read these articles: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2011/03/libyan_opposition_leader_wasnt.php
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/26/2755053/new-libyan-rebel-leader-spent.html
Al Qaida has an opportunity to take over Yemen. And the MB has an opportunity to take over Egypt. But Syria and Libya are different.
they are the same people … wake up !
If the MB is taking over Egypt, that is news to over 80 million Egyptians.
You should hold a press conference and also reveal your inside sources for this extraordinary information.
This is all a build up to the Responsibility 2 Protect Palestinians. Samantha Power is pure Jew Hatred on the hoof.
Israel show ask the UN to protect it from the rockets and mortars from the Gaza strip
Lack of DDT kills about 1.5 million African children under the age of five each year, according to WHO. So bad is this humanitarian crisis, that WHO had to authorize limited use in 2006 when they were unable to turn up any good reason for the ban.
Heck if the USA wanted a humanitarian crisis to fix, wouldn’t this be it? Especially with a black in the white house. I wonder.
Liberal lies die hard, especially when cooked up for evil purposes.
Just wait, R2P is deigned to get Israel, and then ultimately the USA.
One argument made against intervention in the Middle East is unintended negative consequences that end up helping terrorists. I heard this one a lot in 2001 and 2003, but it seems forgotten now.
The classic example was the unintended effect of supplying (with money, intel, and stinger missiles) the Mujahideen in Afghanistan fight off the Soviet Army. This created a large number of well armed, well funded, experienced fighters. AS important, it led to the development of a whole infrastructure to train more fighters, and to organize, fund and supply their efforts. Their success in Afghanistan gave them a sovereign base to conduct training and avoid capture.
Empowered by victory over the Soviets (which was enabled by us), they eventually turned their attention to other targets (us) and became today’s arch-terrorists – Taliban and al Qaeda. However, when we armed and empowered the Muj in Afghanistan we didn’t know they would become our enemy, and the Soviet invasion into the middle east was the big threat.
By contrast, it is pretty obvious that the ‘rebels’ in Libya have significant connections to al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, etc. The kind of guys who did 9-11 are birds of a feather. With our support (if it continues) they will eventually win, and be even better armed, more empowered, and funded with immense oil revenues. If they lose, they will blame us for not supporting them more. Either way, this will probably turn out a bit like our effort in Afghanistan, and create another source of instability which will eventually attack us. Except this time you would think we would know better.
Two outstanding questions continue to remain unanswered:
1. Who are the rebels and what is their intentions,
2. In the absense of uniforms, who are the civilians? Are not the rebels civilians because they have no distinguishments or subscribed oaths.
We can be fairly certain that an act of war is war, and that abdictating U.S. forces to the UN or NATO is near onto treason, for reasons which will never be made clear during this presidency.
Who are marking the targets? Just GPS from air RECON? I doubt it.
If the UN securlar humanists pagans were worried about human life, wait until a true follower of Muhammad is in power.
FOR HIRE the US Military on call to militant Mohammedans EVERYWHERE . Just look at our credentials we ousted those pesky Christians from Kosovo and Bosnia and bombed their Christian homeland Serbia too just to teach them a lesson how dare they hold back the Mohammedan hordes for centuries. Now we have made it easy for the Mohammedan Brotherhood to take over in Egypt and we are well on the way to letting Al Queda take control in Libya and who can forget our outstanding performance in installing a SHIA and Iranian loving Regime in Iraq. Afghanistan is a work in progress but dont worry we will let the Taliban back in there too. So Mohammedans got a problem just call Hillary and the Pentagon we are at YOUR service.
“As it so happens, Muammar al-Gaddafi denies that Libyan forces have purposely targeted civilians. Unlike in the cases of Bosnia and Kosovo, there has not been even the pretense of a neutral international investigation to determine the circumstances of the alleged attacks or indeed whether they even occurred at all.”
Umm, he did go on tv and promise to butcher the civilians of Benghazi in their homes. And he did use copters and aircraft against the Tripoli demonstrators. Hard to see how much more evidence you need.
and they say the leader of Libya and north korea are nut cases. obama is showing them what stupid looks like.
still having trouble getting over the fact the the american people (half of them) could actually vote to install a self descroibed socialist to the presidency.
explains obama’s world apology tour. John Kerry called it a ‘global test’ but even he stated he would have approval from US citizens. Obama doesn’t bother. With R2P, why would he have to since now the ultimate decider is the UN Security Council. This is yet another ‘fundamental change’ brought to you by the ‘transnational progressives’.
R2P? The Nazis went into Sudetenland on that pretext. The Russians went into Georgia on that pretext. How bad does the human rights situation have to be to justify UN intervention? Will income disparity or, say, lack of voting rights in DC meet the threshold one day? When you conduct war by committee, as Sarkozy’s panel of ministers promises, you grant yourself infinite rights to meddle and impose, but no one identifiable person can be held accountable should it go wrong. The pretense with the international community”authorizing” this is that they are governed by some system of laws. They are not. Many are dictators, and their interests can be arbitrary, shallow and unethical. We hand over our military to them at our peril. It’s more a pack of jackals operating by the law of the jungle, but academicians can’t face that truth.