I wonder, the way things have gone so far in Libya, has anyone here changed their initial opinion

[howard112211]

about the involvement of the US and NATO in the whole story?

I, so far, have not fundamentally changed mine. It looks to me as if the involvement of the west effectively lead only to a further escalation, and did not solve anything, which was one of my primary points of criticism. I think the massacres which were predicted if there had been no interference would not have reached anywhere near the scale of human suffering that we are seeing now.

[Drale]

1. Its hard to judge because

the only news we get out of Libya is from the M$M and I don't trust them as far as I can throw them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. There are many sources other than MSM for news out of LIbya.

For starters, ....http://www.youtube.com/user/aljazeeraenglish

edit: for reading, instead of video, go to their English page: http://english.aljazeera.net/

[EFerrari]

7. AJ is funded by Qatar, is that right?

Qatar which is complicit in the NATO operations in Libya.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Partially funded. Over the years it has gained a lot of credibility by the West.

"Many people see Al Jazeera as a more trustworthy source of information than government and foreign channels"

Wiki has a good history of the station. Turns out first BBC and now US MSM depend on AJ for information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera

I tune in to counter balance the MSM here.

[EFerrari]

10. AJ is much better than anything we have

but in this instance, I wouldn't assume their reporting is unbiased.

[Hannah Bell]

20. al jazeera is as msm as anything else. It's owned by a sheikh & staffed by ex-BBC personnel.

qatar ruling house = british compradors.

[Kalun D]

2. It Was All Done For Me

when they used depleted uranium bombs. That's not helping anyone that has to go on living there on either side. That's just indiscriminate long term killing.

[MrTriumph]

3. No change. It was and is another bad decision by Pres. Obama.

x

[EFerrari]

4. Libya Rebels: US to Send Gadhafi Opponents $25 Million in Aid

Source: ABC news

After spending weeks trying to determine who the rebels in Libya are and what they want, the Obama administration has notified Congress it intends to provide the rebels with $25 million in assistance. It will not include arms or ammunition.

The President's proposed actions would provide urgently needed non-lethal assistance to support efforts to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack in Libya," the letter from Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs Joseph Macmanus said. Administration officials also briefed the Hill on the plans on Tuesday.

The State Department today denied it was trying to tip the balance of the months long stalemate between the rebels and Gadhafi's forces.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4821636

[RKP5637]

6. Initially I thought the mission was clear, now I do not, and I'm concerned this

will be another nation rebuilding by escalation, it's dragging on, and MSM now is vague. I think it's difficult for any of us to really understand the dynamics of what's going on now. I'm concerned this will be yet another protracted mess.

[Keith Bee]

9. Nope

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[Modern_Matthew]

11. Nope. My position on war is set in stone. nt

[NightWatcher]

12. most of us against this war knew it would get worse

Mission Creep, my ass, this was the plan all along

[sabrina 1]

13. No, I agreed with the original rebels that foreign interference

would turn Libya into another Iraq.

Also, reading that the rebellion itself may have been orchestrated from outside, reminded me of how the public was 'prepared' for the war in Iraq.

Iraq is a complete disaster and may never recover from the damage done by the invasion.

Anyone who cares about the Libyan people would never, ever want to see them invaded by the same war criminals who are currently killing civilians almost on a daily basis, in Afghanistan. NATO does not care about the Libyan people just as they've proven they do not care about the Afghan people or the people of Pakistan.

But they're going to invade Libya anyhow. It was on the list of countries targeted by the PNAC airc. And we will have nothing to say about it. Nor will the Libyan people.

[Recursion]

14. I retain my cautious vague disapproval

So far things have been better than the worst-case scenarios I was worried about, but still not good enough to justify military action.

[Starry Messenger]

15. No. I've never trusted NATO.

They embody the Billy Bragg song about "making the world safe for capitalism". Our only interest ever is protecting empire.

[Baclava]

16. Nope - I was against the war from the start. No matter what the warmongers were saying.

I said it would be a bloodbath - no such thing as a "clean" war - 'no-fly' zones don't win territory on the ground.
Anybody could have told you that.

[meow mix]

17. nope. im pleased with wuth progress in libya.

once misrata is locked up, its onwards to tripoli.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. No. It, like Iraq and Afghanistan is just another Neocon/Neolib cash cow for the MIC.

[Bosonic]

19. no

I thought US/EU/NATO involvement in this civil war would be a slowly unwinding clusterf*ck:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x678192#678988

I haven't had any reason to revise that opinion.


BTW The archived thread I linked to has some interesting replies on a question similar to the OP but posed one month ago (what happens if NFZ isn't enough)

[Baclava]

22. I was one of the 'deleted message' guys in that thread

Evidently calling Libya a "war" was verboten at that time.


(I am averting my eyes from the mods)

[PVnRT]

21. No, though mission creep begins to concern me

[Uncle Joe]

23. A further escalation from what? I see no way to compare it as the potential massacre

from our non-interference never took place.

Thanks for the thread, howard.

[On the Road]

24. No -- I'm Glad for the Intervention

and believe it be successful. Libya + Ivory Coast may not prevent another Liberia or Sierra Leone with teenagers spraying machine guns in the jungle, but it may prevent another Bosnia or Kurdish Iraq where a leader uses aircraft and heavy weaponry against his own citizens.

[formernaderite]

25. still opposed...esp

after my son-in-law starting forwarding me raw videos from youtube. I'm not going to post them here, but the rebel crowds are just as barbaric as what is in control. I dn't even know what to think... the level of inhumanity that exists in that part of the world, will take generations to heal.