Just did. I hope it works. I wonder if Joey or Joe signed it.

Of course Mr. Rawnsley did not mention China and Russia simply because both are the models of democracy. Both did not mow down their own (and not) people, invade, kill and destroy their own neighbours. Both have suddenly become peace doves to an extent, in the case of China, that it has stopped executing petty thieves in order to sell their organs for transplants.

In fact I have no doubt that quite a few rich Western patients have a Chinese kidney from one of those sacrificial lambs. The practice seems to have stopped recently since China discovered that there is more money to be made from sweat shops and from dumping cheap (price and quality) merchandise on Western markets which very soon will be ruining their collective economies.

The hypocrisy is astounding and the current situation underlines how we have become accustomed to value life so cheaply

Well, for what it’s worth I signed it too – but I think it will take more than a no-fly zone now.

THAT should have been imposed last week at the latest to be effective.

At the height of the military race during the Cold War, NATO and the Warsaw Pact were approximately at par in terms of power deployment. By contrast, the challenge nowadays in the Mediterranean to American supremacy by Russia or others is considerably less than it was 20 years ago. I think that Russia and China have more clout at the Security Council than they actually have in the Mediterranean theatre.

On the other hand, I think that if we had to assume that Russia and China would bar the humanitarian perspective in their voting at the Security Council vis a vis Libya, and had to have only geo-political considerations, they would still have to consider, in my view, a new Libya, which would certainly remember their voting pattern at the UN.

Finally, given this historic opportunity for the West to help free a people from tyranny, I hope that one of the men that matters, ie: Obama, will not be a modern version of Carter.

The Arab League should do well also to put the money where its mouth is and commit some military hardware (many Arab air-forces are very modern) to help in toppling Gaddafi.

Wesley Clarke gave a lecture on military strategy in Iraq before any formal decision had been taken on attacking Iraq, so anything coming from that quarter should be taken with more than just a pinch of salt.

http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2011/03/12/even-wesley-clark-thinks-a-libyan-war-is-a-bad-idea/

and of Andrew Sullivan who states that leaving Libya to fight it out is brutal but smart.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/03/sunday-papers-libya-barack

There’s more to it than meets the eye.

The world is no longer the exclusive stage of Western Europe and the US. Russia and China are increasingly becoming powers to be reckoned.

And the aspiration of the southern hemisphere are not to be discounted either. Chavez called for a SATO. Perhaps his call went unheard; or perhaps it was just an acorn which needs time to grow into a sturdy oak tree.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/libya_no_fly_zone_1/96.php

[Daphne – I have just visited the site and sent the message. I am glad to see that 857,000+ people have done so too. I encourage others to do the same.]