It´s naive to expect that Frech and Canadian intervention is an act of good will and its main interest is getting rid of Kaddafi (what´s the proper spelling of this name?)  for the sake of the people of Libya. Of course it´s about oil. If, accidentally, getting rid of Kaddafi will improve the fate of Libyans, it´s good, but I have reasons to doubt it. It´s a tough call though: Kaddafi´s regime was not good for people, the western interventions have been known to cause lots of collateral damage and are definitely not something to wish for. The question is what is the best way to get rid of the dictator without engaging western forces. Will the folk of Libya manage on their own? Will the west risk longterm cease in oil supplies? Or even higher prices of already expensive petrol?

It´s not a simple game and it has too many players whose positions are in danger.

So if a country has oil we should all just let its inhabitants be killed by a mass murdering psychotic dictator? Because that is what Kaddafi is, no way around it. I´m sure that intervening countries have more than one reason to support a no fly zone. One of them can simply be, Libya is very very close to "the West". Fighting and revolts is something that spreads, as we have seen in the news recently in the Middle Eastern region. One of them can also be wanting to have a stable oil supply. So, you save foreign people from being killed by their dictator while also providing your own people with a steady energy supply. Although I highly doubt that a no fly zone will make any difference with oil supplies. Products are still entering Libya, and are also still getting out of Libya.

You know what I wonder, where are the "the West is against Islam" conspiracies now? Shouldn´t "the Western Christians" just let those "Islamic Middle Easterners" kill eachother? Damned if you don´t, damned if you do. Whatever the West does in this situation, there is always somebody who thinks it´s wrong.

Canada has it´s own oil, we supply oil to the USA.  Further more Canda did not have any econimic trade with Libya, we did not import from them or export to them products. 

Canada is there to inforce the no-fly zone over Libya and the reason they are involved is because of their agreement accord with the UN nad NATO and are to be in stand-by in Sicily Canada has also sent a frigate to help in the naval blockade.  In total we have 240 military personel deployed on this mission.

On top of that Canada is sending $5 million in humanitarian aid to Libya, that will go to medical supplies and emergency shelters.

Oh and Gadafie said he would protect foreign workers that are stranded in his country!  But he doesn´t bat an eye at killing his own people because they are revolting themselves against his regime!

I don´t claim Serbs are completely innocent, but I DO claim Serbs are victims too, in this war and through the history. Anyway, with no intention to turn this topic to discussion of „Serbian question“, I will gladly answer your questions, appreciating your interest to hear explanation from „the other side“ and out of wide spread stereotypes. My English is not so good to allow me to completely express my opinion, so I will ask you, and everyone else interested and patient enough to read this article – its parts about Kosovo and Bosnia. There are facts that explain all your questions. But in short: Serbia was not bombed because of Bosnia, but because of Kosovo, and conflict between Serbs and Albanians about Kosovo reaches deep in history and no one is able to say „who started first“. Anyway, in newer history, Kosovo became officially attached to Serbia, where Albanian minority became mayority in the province, struggling to achieve independence. Similar things happen in Basque Spain, Catholic Northern Ireland, Kurdish Turkey, where rebellious forces, similar to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA),  engage governments and provoke retaliation. Of course, Serbia, as any sovereign country, fought against such kind of separatism. But, independent Kosovo conformed to the West – this time it was not oil in question, but military presence at Balkans  - Serbia denied the stationing of NATO troops in sovereign Serbian territory. So, international forces supported rebellions and attacked Yugoslavia citing „atrocities against Albanians“ as the reason. The result was:  physical and economic destruction of Yugoslavia; the Serbs lost authority in Kosovo; ethnic cleansing of a Serb population, going to even trafficking in organs taken from murdered Serbs! – and brand new US military camp Bondsteel, described by human rights envoy of the Council of Europe as a "smaller version of Guantanamo"!

Now let alone everything that happened to „bad Serbian people, who got what deserved“. Let´s see what have got Albanian people who was supposed to be „protected“: they were directly exposed to the terror of Serbian forces, since the mass exodus  of Albanians from Kosovo did not start until the NATO bombings of Kosovo, in which many Kosovars were killed; their infrastructure was destructed, their territory bombed with missiles filled with depleted uranium, with all its consequences to human health for (hundreds of) years. Is it what had to happen, in situation when negotiations were still possible?

One thing that I want to highlight – and this is similar with what Vineyards said in his post - besides of punishing Serbs, there are more results of the Yugoslavia war that should be considered: „testing of weapons in all types of conditions that caused death and destruction, an acceptance that strong nations may attack weaker nations with the pretext of unfair treatment of their minorities, revival of war as a solution to problems, renewal of an arms race, the loss of sovereignty, and the uncomfortable feeling that no matter where you are in the world, if you don´t agree with a specified policy you can become the target of a guided missile.“

What most on here have conveniently omited (except Alameda) is that The Arab League were calling on the UN  to take action over what was happening in Libya so to say it was a totally western intervention is clearly wrong.

Bydand, the newspapers ring today with the news that The Arab League has denounced the intervention on account that they are calling for the enforcement of a no-flight zone only; not a full scale bombing operation.

For your information, I am not a fanatic supporter of Qaddafi, I don´t like him even a bit. Nevertheless, I wouldn´t bomb his country without negotiating with him first. He is still the recognized leader of his country. Should he be subjected to sanctions, there are natural steps to follow. These might be economic and military sanctions. When these fail harsher measures could be considered and each one of these steps must be in accordance with the established international laws.

Of course, if you are content with a Wild West type general outlook in international relations, there is not much to be said. It is a bit good luck to be on the winning side. 

We humans have a high IQ but our animal instincts still linger on. Sometimes, we just can´t see the whole picture. We must have fair laws and practices in international politics; we must make sure that justice is served. War must be the last step not the first.

As for Canada sympathizing with the Libyan sufferings; well that sounds like one heck of a tall story. I would more readily believe Canada is siding with their natural allies in the hope of increasing its non-existing international influence.

You are welcome to living in any country Stumpy. The poorer half of the world opens up its visa free borders to you. You can be anywhere, any time with all your complaints and disdain of local culture. You consider yourself as the norm. All the rest is wrong, there is no such thing like natural evolution, let´s wipe them out off the face of the Earth. The bombardment will tame the savages in Libya and convert them into a more civilized people. Don´t get surprized with this, if you compress the timeline a bit, this is more or less how the West has regarded Africa for centuries. This did not stop until after 50´s. Just listen to the memories of the Jazz singers. Even multitudes of Western red necks consider the catostrophy in Japan as yet another revenge of the attack on Pearl Harbour. What would you expect when their government has not officially apoligized to date.

When you take a look at how things are organized in today´s world, you´ll see wealth is controlled by the powers that be with the poverty becoming the fate for billions of people. Any attempt that might jeopardize the situation is punished with bombardments. 

When these poor and hopeless people show up at your gates, you point your fingers at them saying, "These people choose to live in our country because it is good." Yeah, it is good, about 32 million people living in a continent size territory with riches of all sorts captured from the natives. If I were you I would shut up and pray God for being so generous to me. These people are not coming to you because they are crazy for your culture, all that there is, is the usual thing between the haves and have nots.

OK. If we go on here with this we will become off topic. We could move this to another thread and I will gladly discuss with you...

Your words not mine, I have never said I was the norm and the rest were wrong.  Oh yeah it´s true, I forgot, I am better than everyone here! NOT!

Yes land taken away from my native ancestors by the white settlers who killed and placed my people in indian reserves.  I am VERY GREATFULL for that, I kiss their feet every day I breath, I also kiss the feet of the Brittish who slaughtered my French ancestors also!

If I had such disdain for other cultures as you put it I would not be busting my ass trying to learn Turkish and the customs just for a 3 week visit.

Why should I shut up?  I am intitle to voice my opinions just like you.  I am my own person, with my own ideas and opinions and I can make my own decisions.  And why pray?   Pray to a god that does not seem to care about what is happening!  Pray for salvation and guidance?  Pray for mercy and clemency?  Pray to save my soul?  If there was a god he would not be permitting this insanety that is happening right now around the world.

When nothing was being done for Libya peopel were outraged, now that something is being done we are considered the monsters who want to grab the oil of the country.  Like barba-mama said: Damned if you don´t, damned if you do. Whatever the West does in this situation, there is always somebody who thinks it´s wrong.  

Maybe our leaders should have left well enough alone and let Gaddafi kill his own people.  If this would have been done instead then we would have been considered monsters anyways because our leaders allowed it to happen.

Anyways, whatever I say you will find something negative about me, so go right ahead, take your best shot, contrary to what you think I am not a hatefull person and I do listen to the opinions of others.  And I do try to learn from these discution contrary to popular belief.

Well, this is perfectly normal, there can always be multiple reactions, this is quite understandable. After all, what we have here are pretty much like Western and Eastern fan clubs. Both are very predictable. I would be surprized if  either group could ever show some sort of empathy. This is almost in their making, with all those stereotypes injected into their brains, all that they can do is producing these uniform sentences. Anyway, as we are talking Libya´s coffin is getting ready, another zombie republic will take its place. Its wealth will be distributed among Western investors and this way Sarko will not need to ask for money from Qaddafi for his next election campaign, nor will Britain have to look for Arab owners for their football clubs. The money is there to be taken.

I will not find anything wrong about you unless you sing the praises of these savage invasions. Stop intimidating the world with weapons and fire power. In the past, we lost almost half of our population to the vicious desires of the Western forces. We fought a war of independence to clear our country from those well-meant French, British and Greek invaders. We know how it feels that´s all. You should understand, the threat is always coming from the West who doesn´t want to let anyone hold on to the wealth of their own nations. 

So the question here is not you. It is just a general reaction. Enough is enough.