\n<\/strong>President Obama says that the NATO coalition enforced the\u00a0 no-fly zone in Libya to protect innocent human lives. The idealist in me views that motivation as noble. I\u2019m hoping that part of this effort comes from lessons learned from our hesitation to intervene in the Balkans and our willful blindness to the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

My cynical side looks at the particular lives that are being protected as just happening to exist in a country on whose oil<\/a> European countries heavily rely. [Italy: 22%. France: 16%. Spain 13%] \u00a0And, of course, I\u2019m troubled that the same attention is not being paid to lives at risk in, for one example, Cote D\u2019Ivoire<\/a>, where the government is also attacking its own people as we speak.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it\u2019s a big deal that the US is intervening\u2014even if the logic is imperfect. \u00a0In his March 28 speech, President Obama said:<\/p>\n

\u2026as I\u2019ve said before, our strength abroad is anchored in our strength here at home. That must always be our North Star \u2014 the ability of our people to reach their potential, to make wise choices with our resources, to enlarge the prosperity that serves as a wellspring for our power, and to live the values that we hold so dear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good statement of principles\u2014particularly that line about our strength abroad being anchored in our strength here at home. So, here’s an idea: Let\u2019s follow that \u201cNorth Star\u201d here at home, recognize our own domestic culpability in not protecting \u201cthe values we hold so dear,\u201d admit our own hypocrisy and do something really innovative: intervene in America\u2019s own attack on its own people.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m referring, of course, to the political and media-abetted attack on middle class workers, people living below the poverty line, union members, women, public employees, and anyone else corporate America and wealthy political donors have decided to demonize and blame for our economic woes\u2014rather than accept responsibility themselves.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have to go into the details about anti-worker legislation, union-busting governors, pro-corporate Supreme Court rulings and anti-choice\/anti-woman bills in Washington and in state legislatures. You know that story.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d simply like to propose that, as we enforce an ostensibly humanitarian \u201cno-fly\u201d zone against Col. Qadaffi in Libya, we acknowledge America\u2019s culpability, too. And I\u2019d like to see someone\u2014Democrats? A progressive caucus? People in the streets? Our President?\u2014publicly and loudly stand up against these attacks and create a \u201cthat-won\u2019t-fly\u201d zone in the US.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s with me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama says that the NATO coalition enforced the\u00a0 no-fly zone in Libya to protect innocent human lives. The idealist in me views that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,16,265],"tags":[968,967],"yoast_head":"\n