Here are two influential Arab intellectuals who support the imposition of the no-flight zone but fault the western forces for the manner in which it was done. (I found both thanks to Idrees Ahmad at Pulse).
Marwan Bishara at Al Jazeera says that Qaddafy brought the U.N. resolution on himself by suppressing a popular uprising. Though he is critical of the way things have gone.
Make no mistake about it, the battle over Libya did take a turn for the worse with the international intervention to protect the Libyan people and impose no-fly zone among other measures. The ongoing bombardment is and will remain a controversial subject that has already been criticised by the Arab league. Further escalation could lead to a backlash.
So who bears the responsibility for turning Libya into a war zone and an object of an international military intervention? [Qaddafy himself, Bishara says]
And Gilbert Achcar, interviewed by Paul Jay at the Real News Network, says that it’s not an oil grab, Qaddafy has been collaborating with western powers forever. The purpose of the no-fly-zone resolution was to prevent slaughter, and it’s hard to oppose.
Other insights from Achcar: The rebels are a political mixture similar to the mix we’ve seen in every other uprising, “a broad spectrum of political forces engaged in a movement to get rid of the regime and attain the basic human rights people are fighting for in this part of the world.”
Western forces have exceeded the UN Resolution. Where, asks Jay, is international progressive public opinion? Achcar does a balancing act: The resolution leaves a wide margin of free interpretation. But you can’t oppose it– saying we’re against a no-fly zone even at the cost of a massacre. Yet, “we have to condemn the forms of bombing… when they strike at civilians… this is the anti-imperialist struggle.”
