NATO's ugly face

By Stephen Lendman

Images don't lie, except NATO's fake ones produced in Doha, Qatar and perhaps elsewhere on Hollywood sound stages.

For months, NATO marauders and rebel killers gang raped Libya - murdering, destroying, ravaging on the pretense of protecting.

On August 22, Obama, a duplicitous unindicted war criminal, described the above images as "basic and joyful longing for human freedom."

On August 25, Secretary of State Clinton, another unindicted war criminal, said "(t)he events in Libya this week have heartened the world."

Let them and their conspiratorial allies go to Tripoli, Brega, Misrata and other ravaged Libyan cities and see for themselves.

Let them view streets filled with mangled corpses, blood, agony on the face of the living, destruction everywhere in sight, and human misery beyond what scales can measure.

Let them see firsthand the fruits of their victory. Let them taste, smell, and witness Tripoli's growing humanitarian disaster.

On August 27, Russia Today reported "widespread shortages of fuel, water and electricity, and humanitarian aid supplies are yet to reach the country. The situation on the ground is very close to a catastrophe."

"Tripoli is now facing severe shortages of running water, electricity, gasoline and medicine....The city's municipal services are paralyzed."

Destruction, garbage and maggot-infested corpses fill streets. Communicable and other disease outbreaks may follow, including from contaminated water, soil, and air.

Let them imagine hidden rage and the popular will to resist this and much more.

Let them consider what may, in fact, unfold ahead - continued resistance, struggle, and commitment for real freedom, not serfdom under NATO pillagers.

Not banker occupation. Not Big Oil plundering their resources. Not Washington, London and Paris deciding what's "best" for Libya.

Not settling for servitude under monstrous rulers there to destroy their life force, spirit, and will to say this won't stand!

Not surrendering on their knees. Choosing death on their feet instead, committed to struggle for real liberation. Willing to pay the price because the alternative is too grim to accept, and won't be.

Through at least August 27, independent journalists remained trapped, virtual prisoners, inside Tripoli's Corinthia Hotel, unable to provide real news and commentaries on this and other vital events in Tripoli and other areas.

Their reports are sorely missed. Hopefully efforts continue to free them safely to return home.

On August 26, the International Action Center headlined, "LIBYA - Resistance to US/NATO Conquest Continues," saying:

Despite NATO's full force and the worst kind of insurgent banditry, "heroic resistance to imperialist conquests" continues.

"All the corporate media (deception) claiming mass surrender," Gaddafi fleeing, his sons arrested, and other disinformation "turned out to be nothing but lies and psychological warfare."

As in Iraq and Afghanistan, "arrogant(ly) declar(ing) victory and 'mission accomplished' " won't end popular struggles continuing in "many forms."

Libyans "heroically withstood not only (months of bombing), but also....racist corporate media propaganda (portraying America and) NATO's military machine....as great white liberators."

Now they face pillaging on a grand scale. Responsibility to protect, in fact, disguises an opportunity to plunder, once killing and destruction end or at least subside.

Disaster capitalism is planned for Libya. Naomi Klein explained it in "The Shock Doctrine," exposing the myth of free market democracy. She revealed how neoliberal pillaging exploits security threats, terror attacks, economic meltdowns, natural disasters, and wars.

Ahead expect social services ended, public ones privatized, and freedom on the chopping block to be lost. Planned is a new Western version of Libya, replacing a socially responsible one under Gaddafi.

It was a key reason why he was targeted for removal so corporate predators could swoop in to pick apart Libya's corpse.

As a result, spoils will be divvied up among them. Then on to the next target, and ones after that until all Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia are colonized, occupied by one means or other, and plundered.

In fact, parasitic pillaging is Washington's idea of free market triumphalism, including privatizing public enterprises, regulatory freedom, tax cuts for the rich, impoverishing the rest, exploiting them, corporate handouts, and militarized control for enforcement.

It supports the Bilderberg notion of a global classless society - a New World Order with rulers and serfs. No middle class, no unions, no democracy, no equity or justice, just empowered oligarchs, freed to do as they please under a universal legal system benefitting them.

It's right out of Milton Friedman's play book, articulated in his 1962 book, "Capitalism and Freedom," saying:

"only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When a crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around...our basic function (is) to develop alternatives to existing policies (andbe ready to roll them out when the) impossible becomes the politically inevitable."

Friedman believed that government's sole function is "to protect our freedom from (outside) enemies (and) our fellow-citizens. (It's to) preserve law and order (as well as) enforce private contracts, (safeguard private property and) foster competitive markets."

Everything else in public hands is socialism, an ideology he called blasphemous. He said markets work best unfettered of rules, regulations, onerous taxes, trade barriers, "entrenched interests," human interference, and the best government is practically none.

In other words, anything government does business does better so let it. Ideas about democracy, social justice, and a caring society, he believed were verboten because they interfere with free-wheeling capitalism.

He said public wealth should be in private hands, profit accumulation unrestrained, corporate taxes abolished, and social services curtailed or ended. He believed "economic freedom is an end to itself (and) an indispensable means toward (achieving) political freedom."

Applied to Libya, neither one is possible unless popular resistance prevents or regains what Washington and its allies plan to take, leaving nothing but servitude for Libyans.

That harsh reality has to be resisted, no matter what it takes or for how long. Hopefully, Libyans are up to the task. Given their rage against planned NATO  occupation and plunder, very likely quitting is something they don't contemplate.

Perhaps it's the wild card Washington doesn't expect. A previous article headlined, It Ain't Over Till It's Over. Another was titled, Libya: Keep the Freedom Flame Alive.

Remember John Lennon's lyrics imagining "Nothing to kill or die for....Living life in peace, and "hop(ing) someday....the world will live as one."

So why not if enough in it try.Accomplishing tough things take a while. The impossible takes a little longer. Step one is ending Friedman's version of the best of all possible worlds, NATO, and corporate occupation of Washington. Achieving that would be a major step toward freeing Libyans and perhaps finishing the job elsewhere for the kind of world everyone deserves. It's there for the taking with enough commitment.

Stephen Lendman