32 NORTH from 6


proxies, Bashar Assad in Damascus and Hezbollah in South Lebanon. Sadly, the people of Leb-


anon didn’t even war- rant an honorable men- tion in the remarks. He did devote 11 words to the violent suppression of Coptic Christians in Egypt -- but ignored the destruction of Maronite Christian churches in the Levant, and Greek Ortho- dox places of worship and synagogues throughout the region. Obama asks us to “re-


member that the first peaceful protests were on the streets of Tehran, where the government


THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, May 26, 2011


brutalized women and men, and threw innocent people into jail.” Are we therefore supposed to for- get the days of stunning silence from the White House as these events unfolded? The intellectual discon-


nects between rhetoric and reality don’t stop there. When our com- mander in chief first an- nounced U.S. “participa- tion” in the “NATO-led coalition” to impose a no fly-zone over Libya on March 18, we were told it was a “humanitarian” op- eration. On Thursday, he claimed that “in Libya we saw the prospect of immi- nent massacre,” and had


we not acted, “thousands would have been killed.” Though nobody has an accurate “body count,” that certainly seems to be what’s happening right now along the Barbary Coast -- and in Syria, as well. On Thursday, he said,


“We have learned from our experience in Iraq just how costly and difficult it is to impose regime change by force -- no matter how well intended. Yet, ironically, the only example Obama proffers for “the promise of a multi-ethnic, multi- sectarian democracy,” the only place where he says “people have rejected the perils of political violence for a democratic process, even as they have taken full responsibility for their own security,” is Iraq! Who loaded these words into the Teleprompter? All of this was preamble


for the big news the O- Team wanted to make in Thursday’s speech. Af-


METZLER from 7


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state to protect its civilian population from violence. However the international community will not turn a blind eye when there is a blatant disregard of this obligation—this is a mes- sage that applies not only to Libya.” The Ambassador added,


“Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the violence in armed conflict—recent events in Cote d’Ivoire and Libya re-confirmed this in a tragic way.” Ambassador Wi t t ig


BEAVER POND ESTATES


stressed, “We are deeply shocked by the violence and the brutality of the in- ternal repression against unarmed and peaceful protesters orchestrated


ter obfuscating history, mangling the record, and offering American tax dol- lars to relieve debts and “finance infrastructure and job creation” in the Middle East and North Af- rica, Obama dropped the hammer on Israel. Other presidents, going


back to Jimmy Carter, have called for a “two-state solution” to the “Israeli- Palestinian conflict.” In 2004, President George W. Bush supported a Pales- tinian state but acknowl- edged “it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.” On Thurs- day, Obama ditched these assurances and made an unprecedented demand: Israel must surrender ter- ritory crucial to its very existence. For those who do not


have a map in front of them, Obama’s insistence that “the borders of Israel


by the Syrian authorities.” He warned, “We strongly urge the Syrian govern- ment to end its military repression against its own population and respect human rights.” During the Cold War,


Syria was a stalwart So- viet client state; in recent times the Assad regime has been an ally of the Is- lamic Republic of Iran. The obvious questions emerges; if tyrannical rul- ers such as Col Gaddafi or Bashir Assad mistreat their population in peace- time, why would they re- spect their human rights during civil conflict when those people has risen up against the regimes? Ruthless tyrants such as


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and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutual ly agreed swaps” means at its nar- rowest point the country would be only 8 miles wide -- and utterly inde- fensible. It means Israel, the only


state in the region that meets the president’s cri- teria for “self determina- tion” -- an honest judicia- ry; an independent media; credible political parties; free and fair elections -- must now negotiate its fate with those who want none of those things. Ba- rack Obama has become Yasser Arafat’s dream come true.


Oliver North is the host


of “War Stories” on Fox News Channel, the found- er and honorary chairman of Freedom Alliance, and the author of “American Heroes in Special Opera- tions.”


Libya and Syria are hardly expected to suddenly em- brace human and civil rights norms in the midst of conflict. Naturally there is some


price to pay by dictators. The International Crimi- nal Court (ICC) in the Hague is seeking the ar- rest of Colonel Gaddafi as well as his son Saif al- Islam and the intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi for “widespread and system- atic attacks on civilians.” Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo stated that the accused were suspected of committing crimes against humanity in two categories, murder and persecution. Should Gaddafi ever


come to trial, will this heal and rebuild the shattered lives of Libyan civilians, and moreover Gaddafi’s victims of terror over the decades?


John J. Metzler is a Unit-


ed Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues.


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