The War in Libya: Race, "Humanitarianism," and the Media by Maximilian Forte

PurityOfEssence

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Thu Apr-21-11 03:08 AM
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The War in Libya: Race, "Humanitarianism," and the Media by Maximilian Forte

Monthly Review

It's a long article, but is most illuminating in its analysis of the racist element of some of the rebel claims. Of significance is how he discredits the "evidence" of mercenary flights into the country and of the actions of these non-Libyan elements. Evidence of atrocities are cited, as well as references to western intentions to intervene barely a week after the protests started. The size of the early protests are also examined.

It's not like this information is unknown; it's just not convenient. I must say, though, I'm thinking about re-uping my L.A. Times subscription after seeing some of the articles linked here. The narrative also smacks of the truth: the echo chamber conflated these dirty foreigners, and it helped with the image that all Libyans were really against Qaddafi, and only hirelings from abroad were keeping him in power. Quite handy. Quite wrong, too, it would seem: he's still in control of a fair amount of the country and there haven't been significant defections in the army.

There is some serious discrediting of certain key members of the TNC, and a nicely detailed narrative of tweets that gin up unconfirmed stories. Al-Jazeera is also shown to be a fairly witting accomplice--or at least manipulable tool--which is one of the yet-untold stories of this whole horrible affair: they have squandered what was left of a reputation for decency in journalism. That, though, is another story, and they are from Qatar, too, which is where the oil is going at the moment...

Here's a bit:

First, it was right from the intended start of the national protests (that is, Feb. 17 -- although protests in fact began two days earlier) that several opposition spokesmen, anonymous "Libyan" Twitter accounts, and other persons who would become associated with the insurgents' "Transitional National Council" (TNC) produced the paradox of racial/racist hysteria and humanitarian intervention. This was a double-barreled rhetoric: one barrel firing off accusations about foreign/black/African mercenaries engaged in "massacres" against Libyans, and the other barrel firing off demands for immediate Western intervention in the form of a no-fly zone -- the latter to help protect against the former. The two went together -- that is not an adventurous conclusion, as the two came together.

This merits repetition: those Libyans who called for foreign military intervention did so weeks before any supposed "impending massacre" in Benghazi, and did so just as the protests began. In addition, in making those calls, the black specter of African mercenaries was used as a tool to impress urgency on those who would intervene. The no-fly zone may or may not have averted a supposed "massacre" in Benghazi -- and there is good reason to dispute that one was in the works; but what it did not avert is the bloody and often lethal persecution of a whole other group of civilians, that is, African migrant workers targeted because of the color of their skin.

I will be offline for much of the next two days, but will check in when possible to do a little thread-tending; Although a long article, it is well worth a look.