War is peace: A Reply

Here we go again. As military operations wind down in Iraq and the consistent trickle of casualties in Afghanistan are over-shadowed by the thousands drowned in Japan and the hundreds battered in Northern Africa,  the anti-war protesters need a new hook from which to hang their banner. So, in the name of shouting loudest, reasoned consideration has given way to hysterical reactions. The argument goes like this; our dark screens of the Libyan night-sky are being light up by the dull glow of cruise missiles therefore we are at war, we must be, and it’s for oil, it must be.

But surely, to coin a term, the owl of Minerva flies at midnight; it is far to soon to decide that we have committed to a war of comparable affect to Iraq and Afghanistan, and it is certainly too soon to claim it is being done in the defence of oil markets, rather than human life. Especially when there is absolutely no evidence for either, no reason to believe there was any alternative option and heaps or reasons to think this may well be different.

Reason One: UN Backing

It’s an obvious one, but it’s a biggy. There may be a subtle difference between the blue berets worn by those acting on behalf on the global community and the star-spangled banner patches that don the uniforms of American imperialists,  but the effect on local perception and international legality is huge, and rightly so. The UN doesn’t back wars, and it certainly doesn’t back wars in the name of oil protection. It is for that reason before all others that, to date, the actions in Libya bear far greater resemblance to Kosovo in 1999 than Iraq in 2003.  The conspiracy theories at the heart of most anti-west rhetoric run deep, however it seems unlikely even they can believe the UN can be used as a front to for western expansionism. It has many flaws, and most good it does is retarded by bureaucracy and outmoded diplomacy, but the claim that UN is a tool of the west rarely goes beyond the most base rhetoric.

Reason Two: Military Make-Up

And then there’s the problem that this is isn’t really a ‘western’ force, in the way that it was caricatured in Iraq. The inclusion of France for one should have forced a sincere re-examination before the same die-old platitudes were trotted out. It is a notoriously isolationist country, plagued by their own imperial legacy that has always been keen to avoid American foreign policy and the ‘western’ label. In addition to France, the usual suspects were joined by Columbia, Bosnia, Portugal, South Africa, Lebanon, Nigeria and Gabon in the UNSC vote to introduce the No-Fly Zone, as well as originally receiving the support of the clearly rather fickle Arab League. It is not good enough to simply look at the tags on the planes and the ‘made in’ stamps on the shells. The states that support the conflict, that helped path the way for war, are just as invested as their western masthead, and are just as capable of pulling the plug.

That is the reason the Libyan crises has yet to show any of the tell-tale signs of a ‘western war’. If, as is being suggested, they are now imposing an agenda and securing their interests, why has every western leader come out in unequivocal opposition to ‘boots on the ground’, which surely can’t be that hard to get done if we are to believe the empty claims that the UN is America’s whipping boy? The way this ‘war’ is being fought is distinctly, well, un-war like.

Reason Three: Oil

That said, it is this one that proves beyond all doubt that this isn’t the third war in our conquest of the Middle East… There is nothing in it for us, beyond the placation of an undeniable moral duty to do what we can to overrun the oppressor and liberate the oppressed.

The total amount of oil reserves that fall within the Libyan border is just under 2% of global reserves (most of which has already peaked), a relatively inconsequential amount when compared to the 11% in Iraq and the 25% in Saudi Arabia, which has seen a similar call for justice in recent weeks to that in Libya. America couldn’t get its oil from Libya even if it wanted to, which, by the way, it doesn’t; according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) figures oil from Libya made up less than 1% of US imports in 2010. This is isn’t a war, and even if it is, it isn’t a war about oil.

People shout ‘oil’ from the rooftops because its an easy way to get society running from its international obligations. Simply breathe a word on ‘energy security’ or the ‘oil empire’ and any humanitarian intervention (be it to stop a genocide in Kurdistan or civil war in Libya) is grounded before the planes have taken off. Isn’t it ironic that it is often those who are first to lend a voice to the disenfranchised masses that are the quickest to use their own to prevent international help?

Reason Four: Because Libya isn’t Yemen or Bahrain

This isn’t were war-hungry anti-war protesters stop though. When all is else lost that old apologist argument “why there when there are so many other places that need help?” is the last to be laid down.

Firstly, this doesn’t actually reject the idea that Libya requires and deserves intervention. Citing other examples of evil despots only serves to heighten our moral duty and should only ever illicit the response, “you’re right, lets help there next.” The fact that people are also dying in the streets of Bahrain and sitting in the squares of Yemen is, to put it bluntly, of no relevance to our involvement with Libya.

Secondly, Yemen and Bahrain are not as relatively clear cut as Libya. Neither country has descended into anarchy or civil war, and there is still hope that a similarly peaceful outcome to that which occurred in Egypt may well be possible. Military action must always be a last resort and it just wouldn’t make sense to resort to it at the sights of other Middle Eastern revolts simply because the tide of protests has lapped at their shores as well.

I agree peace isn’t war and the two are often dangerously conflated, but lets be realistic, this isn’t war either.

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