Richard Falk: Acting Beyond the UN Mandate

By Richard Falk, ZNet, Sep. 8, 21011

 

Source: Richardfalk.com

 

In Western circles of influential opinion, the outcome of the NATO intervention in Libya has already been pronounced ‘a victory’ from several points of view: as a military success that achieved its main goals set at acceptable costs, as a moral success in averting a humanitarian catastrophe, and as a political success that created an opportunity for freedom and constitutionalism on behalf of a long oppressed people. This is one of those rare results in an international conflict situation that seems to please both conservatives and liberals. Conservatives because it was a show of force that reaffirmed Western primacy based on military power. Liberals because force was used with UN backing in accordance with international law and in furtherance of human rights and liberal values.

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