On Libyan intervention
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, on the situation in Libya, were adopted on 26 February and 17 March 2011, respectively. Resolution 1970 was the first case where the Security Council authorized a military intervention citing the R2P; it passed unanimously. One week after the adoption with many absentions of the latter Resolution, Slaughter wrote a strong endorsement of Western military intervention in Libya.[34]
In this op-ed, Slaughter challenged the skeptics who questioned the NATO use of force in Libya, describing a lack of NATO as an invitation for other regional regimes to increase their repression to remain in power. She challenged the idea that value-based and interest-based arguments on intervention could be distinguished and noted the role of President Barack Obama in helping to form an international coalition, which increased the pressure on Muammar Gadhafi. She is supportive of the Libyan Transitional National Council draft constitutional charter and is relieved that comparisons with Iraq are being made, because it might prevent similar mistakes in Libya.[35]
On 25 August 2011, she was roundly criticized by Matt Welch, who sorted through many of Slaughter's prior op-eds and concluded that she was a "situational constitutionalist".[36]
Clifford May on 15 October 2014 wrote a piece in which he drew a straight line between Annan and Slaughter's R2P "norm", and the failure in Libya. May noted that President Obama had cited the R2P norm as his primary justification for using military force with Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who had threatened to attack the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.[37]
In a 11 November 2014 piece entitled What Happened to the Humanitarians Who Wanted to Save Libyans With Bombs and Drones?, Glenn Greenwald denounced her and her policies:
“ Just three years after NATO’s military intervention in Libya ended and was widely heralded by its proponents as a resounding success, that country is in complete collapse. So widespread is violence and anarchy there that “hardly any Libyan can live a normal life,” Brown University’s Stephen Kinzer wrote in The Boston Globe last week. Last month, the Libyan Parliament, with no functioning army to protect it from well-armed militias, was forced to flee Tripoli and take refuge in a Greek car ferry. The New York Times reported in September that “the government of Libya said . . . that it had lost control of its ministries to a coalition of militias that had taken over the capital, Tripoli, in another milestone in the disintegration of the state.” ”
On 26 February 2015, Forbes magazine published a piece which called for Washington policymakers to be held accountable for another war gone bad. Slaughter was singled out for criticism, for her statement that “it clearly can be in the U.S. and the West’s strategic interest to help social revolutions fighting for the values we espouse and proclaim.” The writer, Doug Bandow, concluded that:[38]
“ Libya was an artificial nation. Khadafy held it together through personal rule, not a strong state. When he died political structure vanished. Khadafy was brutally executed; revenge killings and torture were common; black African workers were blamed for the old regime and abused. Khadafy’s arsenals were looted, with weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, flowing outward. The country split apart geographically, ethnically, ideologically, and theologically... The Obama administration’s greatest foreign policy mistake can’t be undone... When war-happy politicians... next stand before America, voters should hold these pitiful policymakers accountable for the disaster they created in Libya. ”
On intervention in Syria
In a February 2012 op-ed for the New York Times, Slaughter wrote an affective piece that proposed the overthrow of Bashar el-Assad by means of civil disobedience:[39]
“ Foreign military intervention in Syria offers the best hope for curtailing a long, bloody and destabilizing civil war. The mantra of those opposed to intervention is “Syria is not Libya.” In fact, Syria is far more strategically located than Libya, and a lengthy civil war there would be much more dangerous to our interests. America has a major stake in helping Syria’s neighbors stop the killing. ”
She proposed that actors such as Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, "arm the opposition soldiers with anti-tank, countersniper and portable antiaircraft weapons" in order to help the Friends of Syria group intervene.[39] Journalist Michael Hirsh was quick to support her in the National Journal, writing that "even if the U.N. Security Council remains paralyzed, the newly empowered Arab League can provide a cover of legitimacy".[40]
On 8 June 2012, Slaughter returned to the subject of intervention in Syria, with a rebuttal of a Henry Kissinger piece,[41] in which he argued that an intervention would imperil the foundation of world order. Citing two situation reports and claiming that NATO had violated UNSC 1970 in Libya, Slaughter imagined an intervention process without widespread destruction:[42]
“ These means would include the provision of intelligence and communications equipment, antitank and anti-mortar weapons, and, crucially, air support against Syrian government tanks and troops that seek to enter or overrun a zone. The provision of such support would also require the disabling of Syrian air defenses. ”
Slaughter sought to provide arms to the terrorists, calling for bold action in creating a western backed coalition that would provide provide heavy weapons to rebels that controlled safe zones which admitted foreign journalists to monitor the terrorists actions.[43] She imagined that "this type of action would force the Russian and Chinese governments to come clean about the real motives for their positions", and proceeded to charge Vladimir Putin with "crimes against humanity, indeed near-genocide... in Chechnya at the turn of the century". Slaughter admitted that the principle of sovereignty was "enshrined in the United Nations Charter", but pointed to the fact that in 2005, the doctrine of R2P had been adopted by the UN.[42]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne-Marie_Slaughter
= new reply since forum marked as read
