Saving lives not the motive for Libyan intervention

RECENTLY it was reported that Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, admitted that jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

This news is not that surprising since, among other things, up until a month ago Gaddafi was considered to be an important western ally, whose son, Dr Mutassim Gaddafi, was welcomed to the US State Department by Hillary Clinton in 2009.

According to those in favour of the Libyan intervention, to point to such hypocrisy is to fudge the essential issue — the plight of the Libyan people. But which people are they referring to? Clearly not to the very many who still support Gaddafi. Nor to those who object to the killing of their fellow citizens and the systematic destruction of their infrastructure by an aerial bombardment conducted by a foreign military force. Motives do matter, of course, for if the welfare of the Libyan people is not the primary concern of the US-NATO intervention, it is not going to be their concern afterwards, either.