(FinalCall.com) – Since the uprising in Libya, I have been attempting to write an article in response to many people, throughout America and the Caribbean, who are familiar with the historical relationship between the Nation of Islam and Libya since 1971.
People have asked where do we stand and for clarity on the current crisis that has unfolded in the North African country that includes President Barrack Obama’s bombing of Libya an African Nation.
First, I am not writing out of dislike for President Obama–who I have defended in my writings and speeches. I am with millions of Blacks in America and people around the world who had tremendous respect for him when he was elected the first Black American President. But on this issue I fundamentally disagree with our president.
›The situation in Libya has been very fluid, making it difficult to precisely pinpoint what is happening from day to day. Furthermore, because of various agendas and corporate media bias, it’s complicated to discern “truth” from “falsehood.” The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said it best, “whenever there is war or conflict, the first casualty is the truth.”
In terms of President Barrack Obama ordering U.S. military involvement in a civil war of another sovereign nation, there is not one leader in the world that has not made some mistakes or missteps. I believe it was a mistake when President Obama pronounced that Muammar Gadhafi must go. The president’s words directly contradict a U.S. position against getting involved with regime change.
The U.S. led military intervention in Libya beginning March 19 in coalition with international forces of other Western Imperialists was a bad move. The attack was described as a preventive measure against a potential humanitarian crisis where they claimed thousands of civilians would be slaughtered if Libyan forces under Gadhafi reached the eastern city of Benghazi, a stronghold of the opposition. That sounds like a “noble” reason for intervention, however that is not consistent with what we see currently happening in North Africa and the Middle East now, nor what we have seen in the past.
Since the Libyan problem arose, President Obama has been in an awkward position, sometimes being contradicted by his Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Answering the question, what is our strategic interest in Libya on the March 27 episode of NBC’s Meet the Press, Secretary of Defense Gates said, “Libya is not part of our vital interest.” Appearing with Gates on the same interview, Secretary of State Clinton attempted to explain and tried to clarify the statement. I believe Mr. Gates spoke what he believed to be the truth. However, it raises questions from both Republicans and Democrats alike on what are we doing in Libya and why are we expending our financial and military resources there?
Other nations as well as Americans, ask why does the U.S. want Gadhafi out of power and want a regime change? The people of America and the world are not buying the line that we want to save the lives of thousands of people in Libya who are about to be killed.
Where was this compassion and concern for civilians when the Israeli Defense Force bombed and killed men, women and children in their brutal attack on Gaza under the guise that they wanted to cripple Hamas in the Gaza Strip? Where was this compassionate concern for civilians when Israeli forces bombed Lebanon killing men, women and children?
In Egypt peaceful demonstrators were slaughtered by deposed president Hosni Mubarak’s security forces and America did not say we must step in militarily to save the innocent civilians. Thousands of people were killed in Kenya over election disputes. We showed no concern for the civilians who died in Kenya, the country of birth of President Obama’s father. In Cote d’Ivoire, there is civil war and people are dying over a failed election, however we haven’t heard the same cry to go in and save these civilians.
We did not hear President Obama push for Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who lost the confidence of his people, to step down or calls for intervening to save the lives of civilians. People are dying in Syria and we haven’t heard any Obama administration intention to rescue the Syrian civilians. The Saudi-backed security forces in Bahrain shot and killed peaceful protestors, forcing them from the center of the city. President Obama was conspicuously silent on Bahrain– where the U.S. maintains a military base protecting the oil routes through the Suez Canal.
In media coverage, the Libyan crisis has eclipsed every other problem in North Africa and the Muslim world. It has now divided America and become Barack’s stone of stumbling. The Libyan issue has given a weapon to Obama’s opposition inside America, who are fi ghting to make him a one-term president and be recorded as the worst president in the history of America.
Why would he give his opposition this kind of political leverage to use against him? He has to answer why his administration is so bent on overthrowing Gadhafi at all costs. The entire world continues to watch President Obama, who garnered wide international support, and hope for a different America after winning the presidency. He stands to lose his credibility in Africa and the Muslim world based on how Libya is being handled.
Though President Obama has proclaimed no boots on the ground, he has given the green light to bomb Tripoli and other areas of Libya, an African nation, killing innocent civilians and using the power of America’s weaponry to take sides in a civil war.
History bears witness to the fallacy of deception in the example of Colin Powell, a brilliant general and remarkable soldier. Mr. Powell, then Secretary of State, went before the United Nations at the insistence of his Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush and lied to the entire world, saying Iraqi president Saddam Hussein posed a nuclear threat to the entire planet and had to be removed.
President Obama and others have presented to the world an extraordinarily inconsistent story, which thinking people know is problematic, concerning saving civilians. We have to ask what is more important saving civilians or ousting Gadhafi ? I would hope that Barack Obama isn’t thinking that because he has been accused of being a Muslim and The Birthers say he wasn’t born in America, he is trying to show he can be as tough on Muslims as anyone else. President Obama has to ask the question will history spare him as the leader who allowed Libya to become his stone of stumbling and become classified as a failure?
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