Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is a tyrant who is killing his own people and now so will we kill Libyans in the name of protecting them. But what kind of reasoning is this? Was there any serious attempt at mediation before launching this war? Must we always use might makes right to resolve our differences?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Vietnam War spoke of his experience in calming inner-city gang violence. Time and again the gang leaders would tell him, they are just doing what the U.S. government is doing in Vietnam, brutally settling their differences. Dr. King would explain to them this only sets the basis for future gang attacks as everyone will have a score to settle.
As we've seen in all the wars since Vietnam, including the current Iraq and Afghan Wars, that is very much the case. In the weeks preceeding the Libya attack, there were opportunities for serious dialogue, but they were not taken, and then suddenly there are the missile attacks for the U.S. and its allies have far more weapons than Libya and presumably might makes right.
If we want peace, which is always what we say, we must seek it through mutual respect and dialogue and only when all other means have been exhausted should one consider a military intervention. For in the end, wars kill, maim and orphan as they destroy everything in their path, however good the stated intentions.
Dick
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