Beyond the stated inten

When the UN Security Council gave its authority to intervene militarily in the Libyan conflict, the authorizing resolution was very specific: It was to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. The move was meant to prevent Libyan strongman Moammar Khaddafi from bombing his own people. 

What was interesting to note about the UN resolution was that the voting was not unanimous, even if the feeling toward Khaddafi may have been. Thus, the so-called BRICS informal grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa abstained from voting. They may not have voted no, particularly permanent Security Council members Russia and China who had veto powers, but the message was the same.

And the message was that, while it may have been necessary to make Khaddafi feel some international pressure bearing down on him, the BRICS apparently felt they were not ready to answer for an action that had all the tendencies to go wrong. At the time, I actually wrote that the manner in which they voted reflected a selfish attitude toward the whole thing.

I mistakenly felt that the BRICS did not want to share responsibility for the UN action in case something went wrong and preferred to let the US and its other allies go it alone. I did not realize that they saw beyond just the potential for things to go wrong, that they actually saw the real danger of the UN resolution being carried out purposely for the wrong intentions.

Now we know better. The latest news from Libya is that the youngest son and three grandchildren of Khaddafi were killed in a NATO airstrike. And the airstrike was carried out based on intelligence that knew the specific whereabouts of Khaddafi himself. Indeed, Khaddafi himself was in the targeted building but managed to escape unhurt.

Now, whether Khaddafi got killed or not, and even if nobody from his family got hurt, the truth that has emerged from the attack is that it was carried out for the purpose of eliminating Khaddafi. In other words, the airstrike no longer conformed to the specific letter of the UN authority that allowed it.

The NATO airstrike was illegal and criminal, and no global loathing of Khaddafi and wishing him dead could eliminate the fact that the United Nations is being used to carry out an illegal and criminal act. Worse, at the forefront of this illegal and criminal activity is the United States, the supposed global model for democracy, justice, and fair play.

As this was written, only the initial adverse global reaction had started to emerge, so I have no way of knowing whether any nation worth its stated purpose in becoming a UN member would dare court the ire of the US and its allies by actually sponsoring another resolution withdrawing the one now being used for illegal and criminal purposes.

But I think the misused and abused resolution should be withdrawn immediately and the US and its allies defanged. Or if they cannot be defanged, at least they should just go on biting without hiding under the cloak of the United Nations. The UN is already starting to be seen as irrelevant by some for its failure to stop the US and its often go-it-alone attitude without being used for unspecified purposes.

This is probably not the first time that the United States has abused a UN resolution to pursue its own interventionist interests. But this is so far the most blatant. And those who abstained from voting should now step in to stop the carnage ostensibly in the name of UN concern for civilian casualties in Libya but actually part of the US plan to get Khaddafi.

If the US wants to get Khaddafi, then by all means get him. But spare the UN from the ignominy and crime. Illegal or legal, the US has always intervened in world affairs, something it loathes being done to its own self. As had been snidely remarked many times, the US is not in the business of practicing democracy, only to preserve it.

Right now, the US may think it has found new allies among the Libyan rebel forces. But you always reap what you sow. The United States does not see that it itself is just being used by Libyan rebel forces to get rid of Khaddafi. Once Khaddafi is killed or ousted, their next target, as it has always been in the Muslim world, will be the United States again.