"Social Network," "Rashomon," Libya

A friend recently reported to me on their reaction to the movie "Social Network." That reaction was mostly negative. I won't get deeply into why, (partly because there were so few really sympathetic characters in the film) -- but its method reminded me of Akira Kurosawa's classic film "Rashomon" in that the story is told from different points of view.

The implication is that that a truly objective "reality" is sort of illusory, because there is a different reality for all people involved in a story.

But look at the situation in Libya at the moment: You can see it all kinds of ways...it can be viewed from different political and "worldview" vantage points.

What bothers me most about Libya is that there is no way Khadaffi can be removed without arming and training the rebels in a big way and then continuing to provide a LOT of air missions supporting them and wearing away at Khadaffi's infrastructure too)...

One British general is now apparently asking for another U.N. resolution calling for the arming of the rebels.

Here I think they will run into a big obstacle with the Russians and the Chinese and maybe even the Germans.

The Turks have tried to act as humanitarians in this, having always had close ties to Khadaffi, and are extremely ambivalent about what NATO is doing.

Because of domestic politics, Obama does not want the U.S. really more deeply involved.

While the Arab League ( whatever it is, exactly) has good reasons for hating Khaddafi ( he has tried in the past to engineer the overthrow of most of their regimes) they are not all that interested I don't think...

Particularly as countries such as Yemen and Syria are repressing and shooting their own people so determinedly and don't want the kind of change the Egyptian uprising represents ( it seems the situation in Egypt, by the way, is a very strained one that may break out in some big revolt against the Army that is now ruling the country).

Saudi Arabia is terrified of its own people now and they are as I understand the major oil allies to the West ( what Noam Chomsky refers to as "the Imperialist powers"-- conveniently forgetting that China is as imperialistic in its way as any other country around)--none of this looks all that promising.

So, it looks like we are just going to watch Misurata be utterly butchered just the way it looked he would destroy Benghazi before the first U.N. resolution ( why do I say first? I don't really believe there will be another I don't think...unless there is a HUGE diplomatic effort on the part of the U.S., Britain and France).

Just as an aside, it seems to be me that everyone underestimated Khadaffi's military leaders...they are smarter than anyone thought, even if they are not a big or really well equipped army).

Not everyone is overjoyed at the prospect of Khadaffi's downfall. It may bring chaos...but it still seems to me a worthy goal. He has "bought" friends all over Africa ( compromising the moral position of South Africa pretty thoroughly ) and is a very clever and evil man who will treat his own people "with no mercy" if they get the least bit out of line. The world will be well rid of him, despite the problems that come after him.