"Arab League leader condemns scope of strikes" by Edward Cody, Washington Post / March 21, 2011
CAIRO — The Arab League secretary general, Amr Moussa, deplored the broad scope of the US-European bombing campaign in Libya yesterday and said he would call a new league meeting to reconsider Arab approval of the Western military intervention.
Moussa said the Arab League’s approval of a no-fly zone on March 12 was based on a desire to prevent Moammar Khadafy’s air force from attacking civilians and was not designed to embrace the intense bombing and missile attacks — including on Tripoli, the capital, and on Libyan ground forces — that have filled Arab television screens for the last two days.
“What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone,’’ he said in a statement on the official Middle East News Agency. “And what we want is the protection of civilians and not the shelling of more civilians.’’
Moussa’s declaration suggested that some of the 22 Arab League members were taken aback by what they have seen and wanted to modify their approval lest they be perceived as accepting outright Western military intervention in Libya.
That's the way the Empire took it.
Although the eccentric Khadafy is widely looked down on in the Arab world, Middle Eastern leaders and their peoples traditionally have risen up in emotional protest at the first sign of Western intervention.
I'm tired of the Arab-hating slander, folks.
A shift away from the Arab League endorsement, even partial, would constitute an important setback to the US-European campaign.
What, are they going to stop bombing?
Western leaders brandished the Arab League decision as a justification for their decision to move militarily and as a weapon in the debate to obtain a UN Security Council resolution two days before the bombing began.
How does it feel to be a tool?
But as US and European military operations entered their second day, most Arab governments maintained public silence, and the strongest expressions of opposition came from the greatest distance. Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Fidel Castro of Cuba condemned the intervention and suggested that Western powers were seeking to acquire Libya’s oil reserves rather than limit the bloodshed in the country.
Oh, they know!!!
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And it is not only the Arabs that are angry:
"Europe’s leaders split on the way forward" by Associated Press / March 22, 2011
BRUSSELS — Discord erupted yesterday in Europe over whether the military operation in Libya should be controlled by NATO after Turkey blocked the alliance’s participation while Italy issued a veiled threat to withdraw the use of its bases unless the alliance was put in charge.
Germany also questioned the wisdom of the operation, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin railed against the UN-backed airstrikes mounted so far against Moammar Khadafy’s force by Britain, France, and the United States outside of their NATO roles....
Diplomats said Turkey, a NATO member that sees itself as a bridge between Europe and the Muslim world, was angered by its exclusion from an emergency summit Saturday in Paris organized by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, at which the 22 participants agreed to launch armed action against the Libyan military.
It really is starting to look like a war on Islam!
France ended up making the first strikes, and the diplomats said Turkey’s envoys had warned that NATO’s participation could damage its standing in the Islamic world while it is heavily engaged in the war in Afghanistan.
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"Europeans ask US, Arab, and African leaders to confer on Libya; Summit slated amid dissension on military roles" by Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press / March 24, 2011
BRUSSELS — France and Britain, in announcing the talks, appeared to be laying the groundwork for separating the international intervention into military and political sides. The military side could be managed by NATO, with the political side managed by a different group that would include Arab countries and be seen less as Western interventionism....
How does it feel to be a tool?
In Ankara, Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, warned that the rules of engagement must be restricted to protecting civilians, enforcing the arms embargo and no-fly zone, and providing humanitarian aid. This would exclude any further air strikes against Khadafy’s ground forces....
Related: "the sixth day of air and missile strikes"
Haven't stopped yet.
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