[THS] Selective nature of UN intervention

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Selective nature of UN intervention

by Sasha Simic

The Guardian, Saturday 19 March 2011


When Israel bombed Gaza at the end of 2008 in a brutal action which killed 1,300
people and destroyed 20,000 buildings, there was no question of the US allowing the
UN to impose a no-fly zone over Gaza to protect its people, 50% of which are
children.

Those who support the UN security council's authorisation of a no-fly zone over Libya
(Britain, France and US line up for air strikes against Gaddafi, 18 March) need to
reflect on the selective nature of UN intervention throughout the world and in the
Middle East in particular.

The UN will not be intervening in the Libyan revolution to protect civilians from
Gaddafi's brutality. It will go in to further the interests of the world's major powers in
the region. It will be an imperialist action, not a humanitarian one. After the
bloodshed it produced in Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan, the doctrine of "humanitarian
military intervention" should be discredited beyond rehabilitation. The west is a major
source of the problems of the Middle East and north Africa. It's not part of the
solution, even when its troops wear blue helmets.

Sasha Simic

London

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/19/selective-un-intervention-libya