Rally Against War in Libya

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by Rich Gardner | 06.29.2011

Rally against war in Libya was carried out by Philly Against War. We assembled outside City Hall, facing to the West. Officially, the reason that the US intervened in the fighting in Libya was to protect the civilian population from Libya's Moammar Gadhafi (He's officially listed as the "Leader and Guide of the Revolution of Libya"). BTW, the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have cost us about $4 triillion.

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Philly Against War (PAW) questions that in our hand-out, suggesting that the collateral damage cause during the bombing campaign (The US also has Special Forces on the ground, but no organized units of troops) is so extensive that the US is not really protecting civilans in any event.

Professor and blogger Juan Cole, who frequently reports on Mideast affairs, covers the recent Congressional vote on Libyan actions and notes that opposition to the war stems just as much from anti-Obama sentiment on the Republican side as it does from anti-war feelings on the Democratic side. Marcy "Emptywheel" Wheeler, comments on the hearing concerning the war in Libya and the War Powers Act:

The issue of how Obama came to claim Libya did not involve “hostilities,” by itself, had Koh speaking in circles worthy of his former student, John Yoo.

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Facebook photos of the rally from fellow PAW member Sainatee Suarez.

Human Rights Watch has condemned Libya's current leadership for human rights abuses. HRW warned Britain of the legal difficulties it might face by joining in with the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. They also had questions about the people that the US would place in charge of Iraq. Very sensibly, HRW also pointed out that G.W. Bush's "War on Terror" was used to cloak human rights abuses.

conductor & choir