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On September 16, 2005, Canada's Liberal Prime Minister, Paul Martin, addressed "The High Level Meeting of the Sixtieth Session of the United Nations General Assembly".
He said,
"Clearly, we need expanded guidelines for Security Council action to make clear our responsibility to act decisively to prevent humanity's attack on humanity. The "Responsibility to Protect" is one such guideline. It seeks rules to protect the innocent against appalling assaults on their life and dignity. It does not bless unilateral action. To the contrary, it stands for clear, multilaterally-agreed criteria on what the international community should do when civilians are at risk."
These "expanded guidelines" as expressed by Martin, were later exploited to launch the criminal invasion of Libya, in which Canada played an important role.
Instead of "protecting the Libyan people", the guidelines were used to attack the wealthiest nation in Africa, to support proxy ground forces (al-Qaeda), and to destroy the country.
The notion that Libyans needed "protection" was engineered through a campaign to demonize Libya's leader, Mohammar Gaddafi. The West used an arsenal of evidence-free allegations, largely unchallenged by corporate media, to press its case. Maximilian C. Forte lists the lies in "The Top Ten Myths in the War Against Libya" :
- Genocide
- Gadaffi is "bombing his own people".
- "Save Benghazi"
- African mercenaries
- Viagra-fueled mass rape
- Gaddafi - the Demon
Freedom Fighters - the Angels
The lies also masked Libya's socially-oriented governance that boasted remarkable achievements:
Human Development Index (HDI), a measure of health, education, and income, ranked above the regional average
The highest standard of living in Africa
Free public health care, and free public
education
89% adult literacy rate (with girls outnumbering
boys by 10% in secondary and tertiary education)
Subsidized, affordable food
Homelessness all but wiped out
In reality, then, the R2P legislation served as a cover to enable the inversion of its professed goal. Instead of protecting Libya and Libyans, it destroyed both.
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