Samantha Power explains how evil prevails, unless we do not let it. In Libya, the West is on the good track.
Samantha Power
In this talk from 2008, Samantha Power passionately speaks about Sergio Vieira de Mello, a war zones hero combining the ingenuity of James Bond with the realistic idealism of Robert Kennedy. More importantly, she makes it tangible how we as individuals can give rise to a movement that can do something to reduce the impact of mass atrocities.
Since the World War, the idea that genocide must be prevented is very strongly present in Western cultures. Yet, the interventions in Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur (Sudan) were too little too late. As Power mentions, it is easier to say ‘never again’ than to commit troops to far away countries. The strategic importance is an obvious part of this game, as is wittily discussed by Jon Stewart’s analysis of ‘freedom packages’ in the Daily Show.
http://www.ted.com/talks/samantha_power_on_a_complicated_hero.html
The reason to bring forward this talk is obvious. When the Libyan protest spilled over to a civil war, the need to act for states committed to human rights and democracy became ever more evident. Although the scale is incomparable with the genocides from the 1990s and 2000s, and Qadhafi’s acts should be legally classified as war crimes, the violence is posing similar dilemmas to states, celebrities and ordinary citizens as previous crises.
Under the doctrine of the responsibility to protect or R2P, states have an obligation to intervene when the security of people is at risk. However, idea(l)s without an army behind it do not get anywhere. In most cases, the option of a safer air campaign is chosen, as we do not want to risk the lives of our Western soldiers for people from countries most of the public can’t point to a map. For instance in Kosovo in 1999, the number of casualties during NATO’s bombing campaign was significantly higher than before.
Altogether, the operation in Libya seems to be relatively effective. France, the United Kingdom, the United States and their allies soon eliminated the Libyan air forces. Qadhafi’s weakened forces have been unable to commit mass atrocities to a scale we have seen in other conflicts or have been restrained to do so. Nevertheless, the question is whether the intervening countries have an exit strategy, as Fareed Zakaria rightly asks. Most likely, at some point time there will be a need to negotiate with the Libyan mad dictator. At moments like those, Sergio Vieira de Mello will be most missed.
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