MUAMMA GADHAFI WANTED POSTER
Khi người dân Libya CAN ĐẢM ĐỨNG LÊN, cầm quyền độc tài Gadhafi trở thành TỘI PHẠM (*)
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If we have the courage, more tyrants like Gaddafi will fall
Those who have argued that the Arabs aren't ready for democracy are being shown up as hypocrites.
The Libyans have tasted liberty. They won't want to give it up Photo: REX FEATURES
By Janet Daley
9:00PM BST 27 Aug 2011
6 Comments
So, not such a futile exercise after all, then. Of course, it isn’t over until it’s over, but Libya is free – free at least of the Gaddafi terror, if not of the danger of counter-coup or chronic instability.
Those of us who urged on the Anglo-French initiative which succeeded in pulling a reluctant US president and an ambivalent Nato into support for this revolution have some right to feel vindicated. What was so widely predicted only weeks ago – the “inevitable” humiliation of the West being forced to accept a seemingly immovable dictator and a country either engaged in indefinite civil war or having to be (in the great colonial tradition) partitioned – has evaporated with bizarre suddenness.
There is still much sighing and elaborate despair from the other side – that is, the other side of our argument here in Britain, as opposed to the more robust disagreement on the ground in Libya. The voices which insisted that no good could come from this intervention – that this was none of our business, that we should learn the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan and stay away, or we would be trapped in a military quagmire with no exit – persist in their fatalism. It is relatively easy, they say, to displace one dictator and his henchmen (although it hadn’t looked easy at all just days before it happened), but installing anything resembling stable democracy will be beyond any of our efforts.
The naysayers do not pull their punches: they make no attempt to conceal the frank racism or, if you prefer, post-colonial contempt for the peoples in question. These are not Europeans, they sneer. They cannot be expected to construct (even, presumably, with the help and guidance of the West) accountable governing institutions. The rule of law and the concept of government by the people and for the people are alien to the tribal culture of this region, with its inherited enmities and traditions of vengeance. These are Arabs, they say knowingly – and Arabs don’t do democracy.
Well, as I recall saying when I wrote on this subject last February, we didn’t do it either until quite recently. The full-blown modern version of institutional democracy did not spring forth in Europe in a blinding flash of enlightenment: it fought its way to fruition through centuries of civil war, dynastic usurpations, religious conflicts and bloody coups. Even within living memory, it has had some spectacular lapses into dictatorship and genocide. Not to mention that the universal franchise, which gave the vote to the female half of the population, had to wait until the 20th century. We may have invented the philosophy that provided the foundations for this most decent and rational form of governance, but we took a very long time to turn it into a functioning reality. It will not do to be quite so condescending.
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Almost every colonial power has made disparaging noises about the inability of natives to govern themselves responsibly: they are not sophisticated in their social relations, they are not educated in the traditions of dispassionate justice, and above all, they are not us. If anything, this sort of arrogance is more misplaced now than ever before. Modern communications have created a global political culture in which human freedom is a given: almost no society is as isolated and parochial as it might have been even a generation ago. The expectations and demands of every population are now informed by a familiarity with Western assumptions about the rights of the individual – and the security and prosperity which tend to follow from the political systems that respect those rights. And this gives us a good reason to think that these novitiates may not take quite as long as we did to make the system work.
There is another, more apparently realistic case for letting events in this part of the world take their own course without any interference from us. It goes like this: these dictators who are now under threat may be unsavoury, but they are often standing as a bulwark against the rise of Islamism. Those murderous, possibly mad tyrants who are prepared to do business with the West at least ensure that violently anti-Western Muslim fundamentalists will not gain control of their countries’ military resources and wealth.
Oddly, the people who espouse this view were often the first to criticise America for its policy of propping up Third World dictators on the “he may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch” principle. Somehow, the cynical short-termism – not to say the immorality – of it seems to escape them in this context.
For what better way could there be to foment that loathing of the West on which Islamism feeds than to underwrite the power of a hated ruler who victimises his own population? The case that al-Qaeda makes to its followers – that the West cares only about itself and its own interests and does not give a damn about conditions of life elsewhere – would be proven beyond any doubt. There it would be: the rich, comfortable, secure peoples of the world do not want to risk chaos in a region that supplies them with oil – even if avoiding the possibility of chaos means that the peoples of that region must be permanently enslaved. What a propaganda gift to hand to our most dangerous enemies.
There is a way to inoculate populations against Islamism. The best antidote to theocracy is liberty. People rarely turn their backs on freedom once they have experienced it. (This is often cited as the reason why no Western democratic country went over to Communism at the time that Russia did: having tasted the “bourgeois freedoms”, people were disinclined to give them up.) The peace and stability of the world depend on spreading those principles of democratic government to every region where the longing for them is expressed, not in colluding with the forces that would suppress them.
The West must not funk this. If it does, it will not only put itself on the wrong side of history, but it will be cast forever in an unforgivable role: the observer of evil who stood by and did nothing. This is not just idealism talking: it is stark realism. It is more important than ever now that we do not lose our moral credibility. In a global power struggle with religious fundamentalists, the damage to our case would be incalculable. We cannot consign whole countries to the Middle Ages for the sake of a quiet life: as well as being wicked, it would not work. People everywhere know too much about the modern world and how it is possible to live. They will not willingly step back into the darkness.
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6 comments
bob3
14 seconds ago
Will Dave now after liberating Libya have the courage to hold an eu referendum, instead of opting for a quiet life and consigning us to the middle ages.
imposedpeacesettlement
14 minutes ago Recommended by 1 person
At last, a piece by Janet that I can wholeheartedly agree with.
And so we must follow her article throught to its logical conclusion.
The only way we will defeat Alqaeda is by striking at the heart of the problem, the place from whence they originate, the reason that the reactionary Alqaeda terrorists exist: we must depose the fascist regime, the tyrants who run Saudi Arabia.
And we must help those held under the jackboot of the absloute monarchy of the fascist Royal Saudi family to become free and democratic citizens.
By freeing those people from the Saudi tyrants and helping them establish a new democratic order we will be simultaneously undermine Alqaeda;s reason to exist as the people of the region will be free men and women able to exercise their democratic right to choose their leaders.
As they will not choose the extremist terrorists in Alqaeda, that organisation will be made redundant.
By deposing the fascist Saudi Royal family we will also defeat Alqaeda.
Let's do it, Janet!
ryeatley
20 minutes ago Recommended by 1 person
"Those who have argued that the Arabs aren't ready for democracy are being
shown up as hypocrites"
The voices which insisted that no good could come from this intervention are very in all likelihood quite correct - tell me, how many have died so far, in furtherance of NATO's action to change the regieme in Libya, and ensure Libyan oil continues to flow in the direction of Europe, and how many more will die?
Do you think that we've "installed anything resembling stable democracy"? Really? Truly, do you? Have we really "given them democracy", when even the "rebels" have said that they want to hold elections nearly a year away, and murder and mayhem are going on in Libya even now?
marc_farque
25 minutes ago Recommended by 7 people
I don't see why as well paying off Oligarchs bad debts , we taxpayers have to fund 'democracy' there and the 'refugees' here.
man_on_waterloo_bridge
27 minutes ago Recommended by 10 people
Nice try Janet , but I will believe it when I see it , just like I used to believe in it here , I realise what democracy really means ; a permanent political class of corrupt Leftist and Liberals with plans for self-enrichment.
Anyway, Hitler was democratically elected and so was Ayatollah Khomeini .
Democracy is dead. Long live Our Beloved Leaders.
monro
28 minutes ago Recommended by 2 people
Oh for heaven's sake!
We can all agree that the hoped for demise of Gaddafi is a good thing.
The issue, surely, is whether, in the longer term, we are able to justify the numerous deaths, casualties and sheer human misery, the deceitful evasion of UNSCR 1973 strictures and the uncertain agenda of the TNC of the present and near future.
For anyone to pretend that, today, they know the answer to that question is hubris, pure and simple.
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What do you think ?
Các anh chị nghĩ thế nào, có ý kiến, phê bình gì qua bài viết "If we have the courage, more tyrants like Gaddafi will fall" cũng như ý kiến phê bình từ "6 Comments" của độc giả ?
Theo thiển ý của conbenho, đây là một đề tài rất thiết thực đáng cho mọi người thảo luận.
Nhiều người cứ dèm pha, cứ "lo sợ" "sau khi LẬT ĐỔ độc tài này sẽ có ĐỘC TÀI khác ..." mà cứ phải khoanh tay ngồi nhìn những bọn cầm quyền ĐỘC TÀI dã thú chà đạp con người, tước đọat QUYỀN LÀM NGƯỜI của những người cô thế, khốn cùng với mớ lý luận bẩn thỉu rởm rác chỉ vì bọn cầm quyền ĐỘC TÀI đó không làm "tổn thương" gì đến họ, nếu không muốn nói một cách thẳng thắn "SỰ THẬT trần truồng" rằng họ đã có liếm láp, chấm mút và được hưởng ân huệ, được chia quyền lợi từ những tên ĐỘC TÀI tàn bạo và thú vật đã và đang sống và hưởng thụ trên MÁU XƯƠNG của người khác, của những người cô thế khốn cùng .
Con người khác con vật ở chỗ biết phân biệt phải quấy, nên phải biết đâu là GIÁ TRỊ CAO QUÝ, THIÊNG LIÊNG của sinh vật được gọi là "CON NGƯỜI" .
Nếu sinh ra làm NGƯỜI để rồi chấp nhận cúi đầu dưới sự chà đạp của những "con người" khác mà không có ý thức phản kháng, chống đối bằng cách này hay cách khác để tự cứu chính mình thì những con NGƯỜI này đâu khác gì những con vật, nếu nói một cách thẳng thắn là vô hình chung, họ đã chấp nhận biến thể để làm những con vật cho "đồng lọai" của họ chà đạp, tước đọat QUYỀN LÀM NGƯỜI .
Những người dân Việt Nam BỊ TRỊ dưới sự chà đạp của bè lũ phản quốc CƯỚP NƯỚC DIỆT CHỦNG BÁN NƯỚC ĐỘC tài ĐỘC đảng thổ phỉ Việt gian cộng sản VN phải làm gì để TỰ CỨU lấy mình thóat kiếp nô lệ, để thóat khỏi cái "thiên đường" xuống hàng chó ngựa cộng sản, để được SỐNG xứng đáng, đúng nghĩa CON NGƯỜI ???
(*) conbenho ghi chú .
Xin chân thành cám ơn bài viết "If we have the courage, more tyrants like Gaddafi will fall" và tác giả Janet Daley .
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
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