Human
Rights Watch,
an organization whose work typically aligns with U.S. imperialism,
recently released information on the fighting between government
forces and the U.S./NATO-supported rebels in Misurata, western Libya.
The report
admitted
that government forces are “not deliberately massacring civilians
but rather narrowly targeting the armed rebels.” (Boston Globe,
April 14)
With
a population of 400,000, only 257 people, many of them combatants,
perished in two months of fighting in Misurata. President Barack
Obama claimed earlier that a “bloodbath” was imminent in the
eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, thus justifying U.S. military
intervention. But there is evidence now that genocide was not in the
making. Though civilians died when Gaddafi’s troops attempted to
recapture the city, it was because they were caught in the crossfire,
a sad but common outcome of urban warfare.
It
is worth recalling that on March 31 NATO itself demanded the rebels
stop killing civilians.
Imperialist
intervention in Libya has only prolonged a civil war, and more
civilians will die as a result.
