On Becoming a Warmonger

Yesterday and today I slept into the afternoon and woke to a rewarding plenitude of sunshine. Not that I should be rewarded as such for lollygagging, but rather perhaps for having overcome a tumultuous week with a modicum of cheer intact.

When the Security Council voted on Resolution 1973, the one about intervening in Libya, I watched it on the live broadcast at the UN's website, and by that point I was in favour of the no-fly zone. It's not a popular opinion in this household. What convinced me was the fear that as Gaddafi's army retook land it would destroy houses and fire on armed rebels and unarmed civilians indiscriminately, the hypocrisy of encouraging the rebels but doing nothing to help them when they are faced with being killed off in great numbers, the clause that there would be no ground invasion, the clear desire that the political future of Libya will be left entirely to the determination of the Libyans, and the fact that even if it is unlikely that anyone will help the protestors being shot at, though unarmed, with live ammunition in Bahrain or in Yemen, at least in one country they will receive a measure of support. As far as I heard the way the protests were handled in Tripoli was unusually cruel — for instance, that bodies of suspected fighters were reportedly taken from hospitals and not returned to their families at all or except under conditions — and governments of other countries (Morocco, Jordan, and even Egypt) reacted very differently to their own protests. Besides it is not fair to say that we may do our best to overthrow our government by casting votes against it in elections, but that people who have far acuter reasons to wish to do so may not, because they would be provoking violence from their government. Since I usually dislike revolution and instinctively dislike wars led by the European Union or the United States (though I was in favour of NATO's actions over Kosovo in 1999, which however seem much more equivocal than I thought at the time) the fact that I have changed my mind in this specific instance indicates that there is a good reason for it. On the other hand I do not like the tendency of the countries which are carrying out the military intervention to celebrate specific airstrikes at all.

Anyway I feel morally responsible for this opinion and so mixed in with the usual Weltschmerz there is the surface worry that I am terribly wrong. Secondly I do think that sincere mediation led by a state like China or India to bring about a political solution now — like a transitional government of Libya still headed by Gaddafi with impartial and rebel statesmen mixed in, with elections to be held three or four years from now so that there is enough time to become familiar with new figures and to adjust to the idea of no longer having a de facto dictatorship; and no presence of armed forces in the territory now held by the rebels — before the war grows intenser, would be a good idea.

On the personal level I've been reading portions of Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution, which I attempt often with temporary success, and playing the piano for short periods and working on a different blog, among other things. Then I've been thinking about university again, and since I provisionally intend to study sciences this time around I've been looking into a book on tensors and a physics textbook, Gravitation. J. was doing Latin homework and Mama was reading something by André Gide in the corner room as I was doing said looking.