February 4, 2016

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February 4, 2016

R2P and Bernie Sanders' Progressives

I have a problem.
I keep reading that Libya has become a litmus test for Bernie progressives.

I see all over that Clinton supported the "forced regime change"in Libya as if that makes her a war monger and/or not to be trust with the power of the military.

This is terribly confusing.

Responsibility to protect gained ground after ghastly mass killings in the late 20th century, including massacres by the Khmers Rouges in Cambodia in the 1970s; the use of chemical weapons in Iraq in 1988; and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. In 1999 NATO unleashed an air war, without a UN blessing, to stop a Serbian campaign in the province of Kosovo. It argued that the need to protect civilians was an overwhelming moral imperative. The UN gave a sort of retrospective blessing by endorsing an international tutelage for the territory, led by Bernard Kouchner, a French pioneer of humanitarian intervention.

R2P is a worldwide progressive initiative.

The RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT ("RtoP" or "R2P&quot is a new international security and human rights norm to address the international community’s failure to prevent and stop genocides, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

The INTERNATIONAL COALITION FOR THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT (ICRtoP) brings together NGOs from all regions of the world to strengthen normative consensus for RtoP, further the understanding of the norm, push for strengthened capacities to prevent and halt genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and mobilize NGOs to push for action to save lives in RtoP country-specific situations.

Libya

So much for the theory. What about the practice? Colonel Qaddafi provided an all-but-unique test. Regional leaders loathed him and readily dumped him. The Arab League's support for the intervention stopped Russia and China wielding their vetoes. And the concentration of the rebels in the east, combined with flat desert terrain, at first made the regime's forces easy bombing targets. “The stars were well and truly aligned in the Libya case,” says Mr Evans. “All the criteria were satisfied.”

I get why RT and those paid by Moscow would like to diminish the efforts of progressive groups around the world, I also get that good plans fail at first contact with the enemy, but I don't understand Sanders' progressives dismissal of global progressive efforts so blithely.

Bernie claimed he was an objector during Vietnam. He later claimed he was not honest in his efforts to avoid the war when he claimed he was opposed to all war. Without prejudice it was an immoral war.

Here's the confusing part. As a progressive who supports war, how does he denigrate the efforts of progressive organizations when he claims no real progressive supported the Libya intervention?

I see a few option that would allow for such casual dismissal of progressive policy.

1. Sympathizes with the Russian and Chinese position
2. Pacifists are trying to redefine progressivism
3. Invested in seeing progressive policy is never implemented or improved.

I'm open to 4,5,or 6