EDITORIAL - Neat little hat trick

When the UN Security Council voted last week to approve whatever means were necessary to stop Libyan leader Moammar Khadafi (there are as many spellings to his name as there are people willing to spell it) from butchering his own people, five council members abstained.

The Security Council members who abstained were Russia, China, India, Germany and Brazil. But it is not the number of members who abstained that is significant but the status of two of them and the powers they wield.

Russia and China are permanent members. In the 15-member council, only five seats are permanent (In addition to Russia and China, the other permanent members are the US, Britain and France). The rest of the seats are available to others by election to a two-year term.

Permanent members wield great power. They all can exercise a veto. When the council voted to bomb Libya if necessary, Russia and China abstained along with Germany, India and Brazil. That suggested they were against the proposal. Yet they could have stopped it with a veto but didn’t.

Most analysts failed to see this significant non-use by Russia and China of their veto power, focusing instead on their abstention with the three other nations. Yet not using their veto will have a far more lasting significance than their abstention in any post-Libyan scenario.

Shortly after the council vote, the three other permanent members — US, Britain and France — quickly launched missiles against Libyan military positions. At this point in the Middle East conflicts, such actions are still naturally welcome to the emerging new regimes.

But there is no letting the chips fall as they may in the Middle East. Eventually, these actions will be seen as yet another case of Western aggression in the region. And who will be depicted as the aggressors? Only the US, Britain and France, of course, but not Russia and China.

If Russia and China had been truly against the action proposed in the Security Council vote, they could have easily vetoed it. But they did not. They did not because they were actually also for it, the only difference being that they did not want to be held responsible.

So when the Arabs and Muslims return to their natural course of hating the US and its allies, which by then will include their aggression in Libya, Russia and China won’t be in their crosshairs. Their abstention will gloss over the fact they could have used their veto but didn’t.