US focuses on Libya, neglects abuses elsewhere

Libya declared a cease-fire following a UN vote which authorized a no-fly zone and "all necessary measures" to prevent the government from attacking its people. However, the measure does nothing to address violence in Bahrain, Yemen or elsewhere.

While the next few moves appear uncertain in Libya, recent US drone air strikes in Pakistan killed 40 civilians and at least 50 people were killed when Yemeni security forces opened fire on an anti-government protest following Muslim prayers.In the Ivory Cost as many as 30 were also killed when armed men loyal to the nation’s incumbent leader, Laurent Gbagbo, shelled a marketplace in the nation’s commercial capital. The United Nations called the abuses in Bahrain "shocking and illegal" but the US-backed regime continued to wage a violent crackdown against anti-government protesters unrestrained by foreign governments. Why has all the focus been on Libya when atrocities, some argued to be worse, have taken place elsewhere in the region.Michel Chossudovsky, the director of the Center for Research on Globalization in Montréal, Canada said the system is full of double standards. “They’ve killed more than a million people in Iraq, they can’t tell us they’re coming to the rescue of civilians. It’s absolute nonsense,” he said. “The situation in Bahrain is very very serious,” Chossudovsky added. “There you have the [US Navy] Fifth Fleet and they didn’t intervene, they just let it happen.” He explained that Gulf States, including Saudi Arabia, are a part of the general coalition that works with the west and is actively supported by the US. There is a rise in factions and the west uses these states as part of their coalition to handle the “dirty work” in the region. “What world public opinion must understand is we are on verge of a fourth war theater in North Africa,” Chossudovsky argued. “That means military intervention, and that means war and that means civilian casualties.”