I feel the authors outrage. I really do. All of those laws and stuff re why Obama shouldn't do this and that. But Obama has the Bomb. The power, know what I mean? And the yanks have all of these groovy weapons and dang nang it, no one likes Gaddafi. Not even the Arabs like him. So it's bombs away ...

I wished we lived in a small L liberal world where the representatives from PETA and the RSPCA could vote on the Security Council - but it ain't gunna happen.

I also feel the author's outrage and agree with Cheryl that we should completely trivialize the lot of the people who dared revolt against their wonderful leader.

It is just a crime!

How dare other nations question what Gaddafi is doing, and I only now feel that way since the US is involved .. who do they think they are .. they have atomic weapons and have only ever used them twice, 75 years ago to end a horrendous war and avoid more death .. but hey, who cares eh, they're Americans and hating them is way more important than anything else.

last week I wanted the killing to stop but now the US are involved ... well .. I am outraged!

I'd go further than others and insist the security council is filled with representatives from South Capetown Council, the Glasgow Table Tennis Club, a Football Cheerleader from Minnesota, of course you couldn't be complete without at least one person from that wonderfully objective ABC they have in Australia .. talk about deep!

We should have a shop steward from a coal mine in China, at least one or two women from cultures where they have had zero contact with the world outside their family in their whole lives, and no education at all. To round off, a synchronized swimmer from Canada and a Tibetan butcher.

It would be so, so cultural!

It's the look of it that's important isn't it, other people can get things done, who cares eh.

Oh, they could all wear a uniform, or the same colour, or a sash to signify world empathy or have an ethics hat or something with oh .. stripes?

As long as the hate of Americans is maintained .. what a disappointment that Obama bloke is, there he was kissing **s all over, and now he's acting as if he controls the most powerful country int he world and has moral values .. such a let down from all that hopey changey stuff (ttp)

Marjorie Cohn,

The other day Mr. Malcolm Fraser, ex politician, told us that he doesn’t like cluster bombs.

Nobody is using cluster bombs in Libya, so, the slaughter of humans by the politicians involved in that country’s bombings must be OK.

I deal in certainties and I know that it is only when people put all politicians out of business that the carnage of massive wars can end.

Modes of government other than the ones which employs politicians are many.

The best I know is True democracy.

A true democracy is where the duty of each citizen cannot be delegated to any other and where the corresponding right is the full knowledge of the way in which the wealth common to all citizens is administered.

It is the aim of all parasites to confuse this truth. Parasites lodge in every nook and cranny of “The State” with its Schools and universities, its Army and weaponry, its gun-equipped bullying Police, its pompous judiciary implementing Laws designed to heighten and protect inequity, its pervasive nets of bureaucrats its Hospitals and its network of do-gooders regimented into a network of self serving Charities.

Sarcasm is always a fairly easy tool to wield in these situations. The contributions that concentrate on poking fun at left-wing "softies" must be highly amusing to the writers, but they also manage to trivialize the issue.

So, people, instead of simply taking shots, how about some conviction in your opinions.

Should foreign agencies have free licence under the "I'm bigger than you" rule to leap in and attack any government/dictator/leader whom they feel is being nasty to their people?

Or should they simply ignore the bleeding bodies in the streets, shrug their shoulders and say "let 'em get on with it, fight it out amongst themselves, it's nothing to do with us"?

It would be good if you also had the courtesy to assess what might be the outcome of your proposal.

well you're damned if you do and damned if you don't eh pericles?

The lefties squeal, please won't someone stop the killing, and when someone tries, they squeal, hey that big guy is doing too much killing and it's not exactly where we want it and what a surprise the guys capable of doing it are the same guys we love to hate .. so let's have it both ways.

Sound familiar?

Are these people being killed in their revolution the same ones who cheered and welcomed home a mass murdered who was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing ..

How much should we care pericles about them, they did nothing then for us .. did they?

The rebels said they didn't want any external help, (who ignored the bleeding bodies first eh?) and let their own people die in droves trying to advance their case, right up to the point they are about to be wiped off the earth.

Then they want everyone to come help .. it helps if the guy whose head they want kicked is generally hated anyway of course.

Why our foreign minister cared a rats I can only conclude is personal ego and profit to his career, he's not a carer is he .. unless a camera is handy.

The Security Council is a joke, and making fun of it is sport. It is ineffective and only operates as a career step for diplomats. They only perform under extreme duress and their hands being forced, if at all.

You could fill it with clowns and no one would notice, it is a puppet organization.

So stop scolding people who disagree and go do something about it yourself, or is this your way of contributing .. taking offence?

My opinion is supported by my convictions .. yours appears to be supported by the old defence "I am offended" for the look of it of course, still no substance.

Ummmm... so which side are you on, Amicus?

>>How much should we care pericles about them, they did nothing then for us .. did they?<<

I guess that's your way of saying "let 'em burn".

So you would have felt the same way about Iraq, I assume. Let Saddam sort out his own mess - yes? Let 'em burn. We were wrong to invade, is that your considered view?

And you will presumably feel the same way in coming weeks about the Yemeni people. And the Syrians - ah yes, especially those Syrians. Let 'em burn, eh? What have they ever done for us, eh?

I envy you your certainty.

The point of my posting is not to say hey, I've got a solution. Because I believe that the issues are not as easily solved as they obviously appear to you after a couple of schooners with your mates down the RSL.

I am suggesting that we have a long way to go before we can operate under a framework of internationally accepted rules that tread that line between invasion of another country's sovereignty and providing humanitarian assistance.

In the meantime, it isn't going to matter whether a government errs on the side of bully-boy aggression or wimpish disengagement. They are bound to get it wrong.