"'Look at us,' say Obama/Clinton and the EU satraps, 'we're doing good. We're on the side of the people.' The sheer cynicism is breathtaking."
Writing for the Guardian today, Tariq Ali delivered a damming interpretation of the motivation compelling the air strikes that continue to garner support from the international community and mainstream media:
We're expected to believe that the leaders with bloody hands in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are defending the people in Libya. The debased British and French media are capable of swallowing anything, but the fact that decent liberals still fall for this rubbish is depressing. Civil society is easily moved by some images and Gaddafi's brutality in sending his air force to bomb his people was the pretext that Washington utilised to bomb another Arab capital. Meanwhile, Obama's allies in the Arab world were hard at work promoting democracy.
Tariq Ali gave three talks at the Perth Writers Festival: 'The Democracy Debate,' a reading of the final book in the Islam Quintet Night of the Golden Butterfly and The Obama Syndrome lecture, presented by SlowTV
Watch Tariq Ali on the “Riz Khan” show on Al Jazeera discussing how the changes sweeping the Middle East will affect American foreign policy and its relationship with the region.
Visit Al Jazeera for more on the Middle East.