Thread by @BisratLKabeta

The resemblance b/n the tragedy of Libya & #Ethiopia🤔

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the US-NATO war against Libya. Launched on the pretext of defending “democracy” and “human rights”

'...the New York Times covers up crimes of imperialism' wsws.org/en/articles/20…

"Eight months of continuous bombing laid waste to whole swathes of the country, the US and the European powers utilized Al Qaeda-linked militias as their proxy ground troops in a war for regime-change that ended in the torture and murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi."

"Today, the devastating results of this war are stark. Libya has been transformed from the most prosperous country in the region to a living hell for its population.. the country has been subjected to uninterrupted violence at the hands of rival militias backed by foreign powers"

"The country has also become the most violent center of human trafficking on the planet, with desperate refugees imprisoned, murdered, tortured, raped & literally bought & sold by rival militia factions.. Many of those who manage to escape.. end up drowning in the Mediterranean"

"How many distortions, evasions & outright lies can be packed into a single editorial [of New York Times]? Libya exemplifies.. the monstrous consequences of.. decades of uninterrupted US imperialist wars & interventions, which have ravaged.. societies & caused millions of deaths"

"The Times is covering up not only US imperialism’s responsibility for Libya’s devastation, but its own role as chief propagandist for the US-NATO war of aggression. The so-called “newspaper of record” relentlessly demonized Gaddafi in preparation for the war, while promoting the

...lie that his government was on the verge of carrying out a “bloodbath” and even “genocide” in the eastern city of Benghazi, a center of the Islamist-led opposition. This fabricated pretext for the imperialist intervention was later debunked by the Pentagon itself."

"In the run-up to the war, the Times editorial board advocated the imposition of a “no-fly” zone in Libya as the framework for preparing the bombing campaign...

The ineffable Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman went even further.. “I believe that it is naïve to think that we can be humanitarians only from the air… I don’t know Libya, but my gut tells me that any kind of decent outcome there will require boots on the ground.”

"When the war ended with the murder of Gaddafi in October 2011, the Times responded with triumphalism. Foreign affairs columnist Roger Cohen penned a piece titled “Score One for Interventionism”...

...fellow columnist Nicholas Kristof, the Times ’ most ardent advocate of “human rights imperialism,” wrote a column titled “Thank you America!” Kristof made the ludicrous claim that by bombing Libya into ruins, Americans had been transformed into “heroes in the Arab world.”

"[Times] proclaimed that the war embodied a new “Obama doctrine”.. suggesting that doctrine could next be employed in Syria, where a CIA-orchestrated war for regime-change, using.. Al Qaeda-linked militias employed in Libya, would in the ensuing years claim half a million lives.

Times today seeks to obscure this history.. not b/c it is squeamish about Washington’s war crimes.. or its direct complicity in facilitating & defending them. Rather, it wants to prevent any lessons from being learned as US imperialism prepares new & even bloodier interventions.

"The US officials who orchestrated the wars in... Libya & Syria are back at the State Department & the White House, from Joe Biden & Secretary of State Antony Blinken on down, & the soiled banners of "human rights” & “democracy” are once again being waved in preparation for war"

"US imperialism is determined to deny control of these resources and domination of the strategically vital North African country to its “great power” rivals, Russia and, in particular, China. Before the 2011 war, the latter was playing an increasing role in Libya’s development."

"More broadly, “human rights” imperialism is being revived in preparations for direct confrontation with both Russia & China. The lurid lies about a “Benghazi bloodbath” & “genocide” used to promote war on Libya find an ominous echo in the propaganda campaigns led by the Times.."