Global Issues: Humanitarian Intervention ~ R2P and Libya - Revisited

Following on from yesterday’s post on the issue of armed intervention in Libya to stop Gaddafi’s regime harming its opponents, todays press has a few more highly relevant articles.

In the Telegraph Mary Riddell, in favour of intervention, is fervent that The Libyans cannot be left to a terrible fate - David Cameron must act - because If the west does not intervene, then we will be sanctioning Gaddafi’s slaughter.

However, of more interest is an article in the FT by Gideon Rachman entitled Better for Libya to liberate itself - in response to and also a refutation of yesterday’s FT article by Gareth Evans [see earlier blog post]. He warns that military intervention could damage the chance for lasting peace in the region. Rachman asserts: “The problem is that the Libyan crisis confronts two sorts of “never agains”. There is the “never again” to mass atrocities and war crimes that came out of experiences such as Rwanda and Srebrenica – and which led to the birth of R2P. And there is the “never again” to armed western intervention to overthrow an Arab dictator that came out of the Iraq war. At the moment, the Iraq experience is proving more powerful.”

The article is well worth reading in full - not least as it has an excellent cartoon to accompany it.