by Matt Boisvert
If any action should be taken in Libya, it must be taken by the United Nations. The UN exists for almost precisely this task: to determine if there needs to be an international intervention in a country and how precisely to go about intervening. The United Nations is designed to foster international peace and human rights; intervention in the Libyan revolution falls squarely into this. The Security Council itself is explicitly charged with maintaining peace and security among counties, and the Human Rights Council is designed to ensure that no group’s human rights are violated. An impartial, multinational committee must determine if human rights are being violated on such an egregious scale to warrant intervention in Libya. If a decision cannot be reached on this matter, than the UN does not work, and must be reformed (but that is a topic for another day).
No single country, no matter how pure and righteous its intentions may seem, is justified in intervening in Libya's revolution. The select few men (with a woman or two thrown in here or there) that happen to rule a single country are not qualified to decide to intervene in the affairs of another. This is the expressed role of the multinational league of nations (thanks Woodrow Wilson), the United Nations. They, and only they, can and must determine the best course of action concerning Libya, a member nation.
The failure to follow the United Nations was exactly what went wrong in Iraq. The United States, contrary to the recommendation of the United Nations, invaded Iraq with fairly good intentions-to free the world from the international threat of Saddam Hussein and his so-called 'weapons of mass destruction' as well as free its people from an oppressive regime. However good these intentions may have seemed, they were based on false assumptions: there proved to be no weapons and the people of Iraq are no less oppressed now than under Saddam. Had the United Nations, with its Human Rights Council and multitude of weapons inspectors, investigated the matter, there would have been no invasion.
Further, Iraq may have been invaded under false pretenses by the USA; it may have been invaded for its supply of the ever-precious oil. Had the United Nations invaded Iraq, this concern would not have been on the table, for no one nation would have claim to the oil. A nation intervening in order to lay claim to Libya's oil is a very real possibility. To ensure this does not happen, to protect against another Iraq, intervention in Libya must only happen through the United Nations.
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