What's this American leadership. I read about it in many Washington documents. In fact that's US foreign policy. American leadership is nothing else than the dictatorship of US capitalist class globally through Multinational Corporations and the US state. Essentially this is imperialism. It involves militarism (as evidenced by illegal invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine through Israeli occupation, military support to paramilitary and rebel forces to overthrow governments by undemocratic means, etc.) and imposition of economic policies such as we have seen from neoliberalism and domination of ideas (arts, culture, writings, visuals, media, etc.), among others.
The so-called American leadership must not only be rejected, it must be fought against and combated. Sent by AlexM -----Original Message----- From: Bongani Mtshweni <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:36:01 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [YCLSA Discussion] Pepe Escobar: 'How the West won Libya', from Asia Times Online To me Obama's words about american leardership symbolise america's power obsession. On 10/22/11, Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Asia Times Online > > *How the West won Libya * > > > *Pepe Escobar, Asia Times Online, Hong Kong, 22 October 2011* > > They are fighting over the carcass as vultures. The French Ministry of > Defense said they got him with a Rafale fighter jet firing over his > convoy. The Pentagon said they got him with a Predator firing a Hellfire > missile. After a wounded Colonel Muammar Gaddafi sought refuge in a > filthy drain underneath a highway - an eerie echo of Saddam Hussein's > "hole" - he was found by Transitional National Council (TNC) "rebels". > And then duly executed. > > Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a Libyan doctor who accompanied Gaddafi's body > in an ambulance and examined it, said he died from two bullets, one to > the chest, one to the head. > > The TNC - which has peddled lies, lies and more lies for months - swears > he died in "crossfire". It may have been a mob. It may have been > Mohammad al-Bibi, a 20-year-old sporting a New York Yankees baseball cap > who posed to the whole world brandishing Gaddafi's golden pistol; his > ticket perhaps to collect the hefty $20 million dangled as the bounty > for Gaddafi "dead or alive". > > It gets curioser and curioser when one remembers that this is exactly > what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her lightning visit to > Tripoli, had announced less than 48 hours before; Gaddafi should be > "captured or killed". The Fairy Queenie satisfied Clinton's wishes, who > learned about it by watching the screen of a BlackBerry - and reacting > with the semantic earthquake "Wow!" > > To the winners, the spoils. They all did it; the North Atlantic Treaty > Organization (NATO), the Pentagon and the TNC. From the minute a United > Nations resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya became a green card > to regime change, plan A was always to capture and kill him. Targeted > assassination; that's Barack Obama administration official policy. There > was no plan B. > > *Let me bomb you to protection * > > As for how R2P ("responsibility to protect" civilians), any doubters > should cling to the explanation by NATO's secretary general Anders Fogh > Rasmussen; "NATO and our partners have successfully implemented the > historic mandate of the United Nations to protect the people of Libya." > Anyone who wants to check NATO's protection of civilians just needs to > jump on a pick-up truck and go to Sirte - the new Fallujah. > > Reactions have been quite instructive. TNC bureaucrat Abdel Ghoga went > Colosseum in the Roman Empire, saying, "The revolutionaries have got the > head of the tyrant." > > United States President Barack Obama said the death of Gaddafi means "we > are seeing the strength of American leadership across the world". That's > as "we got him" as one can possibly expect, also considering that > Washington paid no less than 80% of the operating costs of those dimwits > at NATO (over $1 billion - which Occupy Wall Street could well denounce > would be more helpful creating jobs in the US). Strange, now, to say "we > did it", because the White House always said this was not a war; it was > a "kinetic" something. And they were not in charge. > > It was up to that majestic foreign policy strategist, US Vice President > Joe Biden, to be starkly more enlightening than Obama; "In this case, > America spent $2 billion and didn't lose a single life. This is more the > prescription for how to deal with the world as we go forward than it has > in the past." > > World, you have been warned; this is how the empire will deal with you > from now on. > > *Feel my humanitarian love * > > So congratulations to the "international community" - which as everyone > knows is composed of Washington, a few washed-up NATO members, and the > democratic Persian Gulf powerhouses of Qatar and the United Arab > Emirates (UAE). This community, at least, loved the outcome. The > European Union (EU) hailed "the end of an era of despotism" - when up to > virtually Thursday they were caressing the helm of Gaddafi's gowns; now > they are falling over themselves in editorials about the 42-year reign > of a "buffoon". > > Gaddafi would have been a most inconvenient guest of the International > Criminal Court in The Hague, as he would have relished recalling all the > hand-kissing, the warm embraces and the juicy deals the West was begging > to clinch after he was promoted from "Mad Dog" (Ronald Reagan) to "our > bastard". He would also relish detailing all the shady backgrounds of > those opportunists now posing as "revolutionaries" and "democrats". > > As for the concept of international law, it lies in a drain as filthy as > the one Gaddafi was holed up in. Iraqi dictator Saddam at least got a > fake trial in a kangaroo court before meeting the executioner. Osama bin > Laden was simply snuffed out, assassination-style, after a territorial > invasion of Pakistan. Gaddafi went one up, snuffed out with a mix of air > war and assassination. > > Power vultures are congesting the skies. London-based Mohammed El > Senussi, the heir to the Libyan throne (King Idris was overthrown in > 1969) is ready for his close-up, having already established that he "is > a servant to Libyan people, and they decide what they want". > Translation; I want the throne. He's obviously the favorite candidate of > the counter-revolutionary House of Saud. > > And what about those Washington think-tank donkeys mumbling that this > was the Arab Spring's "Ceausescu moment"? If only the Romanian dictator > had improved his country's standard of living - in terms of free > healthcare, free education, incentives for the newlywed, etc - by a > fraction of what Gaddafi did in Libya. Plus the fact that Nicolae > Ceausescu was not deposed by NATO "humanitarian" bombing. Only the brain > dead may have swallowed the propaganda of NATO's "humanitarian" > 40,000-plus bombing - which devastated Libya's infrastructure back to > the Stone Age (Shock and Awe in slow motion, anyone?). This never had > anything to do with R2P - the relentless bombing of civilians in Sirte > proves it. > > As the top four BRIC members knew it even before the voting of UN > Resolution 1973, it was about NATO ruling the Mediterranean as a NATO > lake, it was about Africom's war against China and setting up a key > strategic base, it was about the French and the Brits getting juicy > contracts to exploit Libya's natural resources to their benefit, it was > about the West setting the narrative of the Arab Spring after they had > been caught napping in Tunisia and Egypt. > > *Listen to the barbaric whimpers * > > Welcome to the new Libya. Intolerant Islamist militias will turn the > lives of Libyan women into a living hell. Hundreds of thousands of > Sub-Saharan Africans - those who could not escape - will be ruthlessly > persecuted. Libya's natural wealth will be plundered. That collection of > anti-aircraft missiles appropriated by Islamists will be a supremely > convincing reason for the "war on terror" in northern Africa to become > eternal. There will be blood - civil war blood, because Tripolitania > will refuse to be ruled by backward Cyrenaica. > > As for remaining dictators everywhere, get a life insurance policy from > NATO Inc; Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia's Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and > Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh were clever enough to do it. We all know > there will never be R2P to liberate the Tibetans and Uyghurs, or the > people in that monster gulag Myanmar, or the people in Uzbekistan, or > the Kurds in Turkey, or the Pashtuns on both sides of the imperially > drawn Durand Line. > > We also know that change the world can believe in will be the day NATO > enforces a no-fly one over Saudi Arabia to protect the Shi'ites in the > eastern province, with the Pentagon launching a Hellfire carpet over > those thousands of medieval, corrupt House of Saud princes. > > It won't happen. Meanwhile, this is the way the West ends; with a NATO > bang, and a thousand barbaric, lawless whimpers. Disgusted? Get a Guy > Fawkes mask and raise hell. > > * */Pepe Escobar/*/ is the author of/ Globalistan: How the Globalized > World is Dissolving into Liquid War > > <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0978813820/simpleproduction/ref=nosim> > (Nimble > Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the > surge > <http://www.amazon.com/Red-Zone-Blues-snapshot-Baghdad/dp/0978813898>. > His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan > > <http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Does-Globalistan-Pepe-Escobar/dp/1934840831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233698286&sr=8-1> > (Nimble > Books, 2009). > > /He may be reached at/ [email protected]. > > > (Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. > Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.) > > > *From: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MJ22Ak03.html* > ** > ** > ** > > -- > You are subscribed. 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