On Libya

Taken from a March 29 audio message. Go to www.prisonradio.org to hear Abu-Jamal’s audio columns and www.millions4mumia.org for updates on the struggle to free him.

And like that — blink — a new war. Just as the Arab spring erupted across the region of Mediterranean Africa and people took to the streets in opposition to their sclerotic kleptocratic rulers, the West has thrust its large nose into the tent and, voila, a new war has emerged — blessed by both the U.N. Security Council and the Arab League.

Oh, they’re using euphemisms like no-fly zone and protecting civilians, but those of us with a little memory can recall the decade-long U.S.-British no-fly zone over Iraq, which laid the groundwork for the invasion and disaster that followed. Obama, elected ostensibly as the candidate to pull the U.S. out of at least one stupid war, has, bowing to right-wing and corporate pressure, opened the door to yet another one.

The centers will argue that this isn’t the same thing. That it’s a no-fly zone, not an attack, and that Libya is no Iraq. In fact, any armed intervention in a nation’s war is, well, ... war.

When France joined the U.S. side in the U.S. fight against Britain, it became a combatant at war with England.

A no-fly zone, like a blockade, is an act of war. The gates are open. This war, like Iraq, will result in disaster, and we will look back and wonder how we got here