:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Friday 16 April 2004 ::

Critical of the US but not anti-American

Here is a Libyan blog.

Yip.

Libyan.

And he is a Guardianista and Chomsky-quoting Libyan which is tragic for the clumsy propaganda that gets peddled - I mean he quotes Seamus Milne the digusting wanker who wrote within days of Sept 11 "They do not know how much they are hated" about Americans. As if the victim of disgusting Islamofascist treachery and murder has to apologise because she deserved it. She deserved that rape. Milne is a jackass.

Anyhoo, this Libyan fellow has lived a long time in the West and he is mighty critical.

But his tone is reasonable. It is not just bitchy Riverbendness making no point except to support violent murderous thugs. Nope.

This guy is critical but he writes like he knows that we know the truth about the violent murderous thuggery that his country has inflincted on innocents in the past. He writes like he knows that we know about Iraq too.

Anyhoo, he has a long post up that is pretty harrowing, all about the US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi that killed 31 Libyans on 14 April 1986.

A bombing done in direct retaliation for Libya's direct or sponsored terrorism in March 1986:
- the attack on the US Marine barracks in Lebanon
- the bombing of the USO club in Naples, Italy
- the bombing of a German disco in West Berlin frequented by US soldiers stationed

March.

Is it any wonder Tripoli got bombed in April.

Any why March? Because sanctions started in January, if I remember right, and Gaddafi was very unhappy about that. And what does an unhappy terrorist leader do?

Well he does more terrorism.

G'uh.

And why were the sanctions even imposed in the first place?

Cos of goddamed Libyan involvement in terrorism before that time, through the Red Brigades, the Abu Nidal Organisation, the PLO, the IRA.

So the start is terrorism. Followed by sanctions, and the reaction? More terrorism.

Then the bombing. And the reaction?

Well, Lockerbie 1988. Nice, huh? A passenger plane.

More terrorism.

And since then? Libya was well and truly shut out of Western society but good. No trade, no deals, no nothing.

And Gaddafi grew not to like that shutting out.

Good for him. It is never too late for a nation to give up terror. Gaddafi can see which way the world is heading - no more toleration of terrorism.

No more.

Now this blogger does sloppily call the bombing 'US state sponsored terrorism' but we all amemba the news.

We all remember the 80's, and the correct name is 'US military action in response to disgraceful Libyan thuggery and terrorism'.

I am figuring he and I may not see eye to eye about this, but maybe we could.

Maybe that is why the whole tone of his post is sad. Cos he knows that we know.

He does write:
Anyway a couple of days later and after nagging my dad took me to visit the Ben Ashur area where we had heard that horrible blast , I was utterly shocked that such a sight would be possible in my own country , it was my ground zero . One always think it happens to others .. but no sometimes it does happen to you as well, and you live to tell about it . One of the young girls who died that night used to go to school with me. The saddest part was her brother was calling from America when he was watching the news, and the phone was reverberating in a destroyed house full of dead people.

In order to survive, we put behind those sad memories and try to become pragmatic about this , maybe we even follow the proverb which says wisely ?when you can?t beat them ..join them?.

This was just one or two nights, so imagine what it is like in Iraq with endless nights like these in sight. No one who has not experienced this first hand can even come near to comprehending. My heart goes out to all the victims and their families in Iraq.

The majority of the Libyan people do not hold a grudge against America, they are very philosophical that this is now America?s turn to build an empire, so let them enjoy the heady feeling of power, but we have to remember that empires are not eternal and everything has a cycle - a beginning and an end.

The post is worth a read cos this is a voice that is not kneejerk anti-US. 'Most Libyans are not anti-American. They know the US won't lead the world forever.'

How very white or you not to hold grudges. I can imagine there are some folks in Beirut, Naples, Berlin and Lockerbie who rather do. But that is neither here nor there. Whatever, man.

The real key here is the sound of a man's voice from Libya - the voice of a person pained by a godawful memory of military might used against his nation, and the damage that it caused to people and homes and families and memory and why it ever happened in the first place.

His heart goes out to all the victims in Iraq. 'One man's terrorist...' can't you just hear it? 'All the victims.'

Well they are not all victims.

Some of them are pigs, Mafiosi scum.

My heart does not go out to kidnappers and thugs. Or blokes in the middle of the street firing their guns and their colleagues firing rocket propelled launchers from civilian areas.

It does not go out to people who coddle them, harbor them, give them shelter, or cower in fear of them.

It goes out only to people who have never committed a terrorist act in their lives and who have never once thought or believed that 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter'.

One man's gamey is another man's rotten.

Etcetera. Etcetera until it means no one at all is a terrorist, which is just bullshit.

Libyans were terrorists in the 80's. With everything that that entailed - danger for their citizens from angered victims. Economic deprivation for the absurd marxist rambligs of the despot in charge.

Now they are not terrorists. Now they do not earn reprisals.

About bloody time.

And this blogger knows it.

Which is terrific cos he is a rare voice. A good man from a formerly bad country.

:: WB 9:25 am [link+] ::