BY NICHOLAS NEAL & AIMEE BEDOY
On Tuesday, August 23rd, the rebel forces in Libya stormed Gadhafi's capital of Tripoli, thus declaring victory over the tyrannical leader who had once imposed unjust and inhumane purification laws against his own people. After 42 years in power as an autocratic dictator in Libya, Muammar Gadhafi has been removed from power by rebels within his own borders. Gadhafi is currently out of power and in hiding from NATO forces, but in an effort to kill Gadhafi and damage his chances of resuming power, NATO has (perhaps accidentally) bombed civilian neighborhoods and caused many collateral deaths in the cause.
When the Obama administration had intervened in Libya via Tomahawk missiles and no-fly zones, our nation tangled itself up in the liberation fight in which the Libyan rebels have since shown a fierce fervor and an adept skill. The fact of the matter is that our nation's intervention in Libya was not only unconstitutional but also caused the deaths of the very civilians that we were supposedly trying to save. How can we be so careless, and what good does it do to cause so much collateral damage just to take down one dictator and his regime?
Gadhafi's rule has been justly overthrown by those who have a responsibility to hold their leaders accountable. The United States has once again involved itself in the civil conflict of another nation without a proper declaration of war, through NATO and by Obama's accord. If anything, the overthrow of Gadhafi should weaken our case for continuing to be involved there, and we have no right to continue to build up our own view of proper government or ideology within a state who is not our own. Indeed, while we perhaps have a responsibility to peoples of other nations to join them against tyranny if they so request it, our job is not to police the foundation of government systems or to be the culprit of the deaths of so many civilians.
Our ethic both admonishes us to support the overthrow of unjust tyranny in the face of so many violations against the rights of humanity, but there must be a certain care for the dignity of all. But we must not be careless in our battles, and perhaps we should ask ourselves if we too often jump into battle when the rebels act more prudently and justly in the face of tyranny.
#volume1issue1 #unjustwar #volume1issue2 #volume1issue3 #volume1issue4 #volume2issue1 #volume2issue2 #volume2issue3 #volume2issue4 #volume3issue1 #volume3issue2 #volume3issue4 #volume3issue3 #volume4issue1 #Volume4issue2 #volume4issue3 #volume5issue1 #volume5issue3 #Volume5Issue4 #volume6issue2 #volume6issue1 #volume5issue6 #volume5issue5