|
Dropping more than concrete
From the BBC
Quote:
French military are presenting their decision to parachute in weaponry to the Libyan rebels in the western Nafusa mountains as a response to a specific local situation.
Civilians, they say, were encircled by government forces who refused to allow the opening up of an aid corridor to reach them.
A French military spokesman says weapons including assault rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers were air-dropped earlier this month.
A report in today's Le Figaro newspaper suggests that Milan anti-tank missiles may also have been included.
Arming the rebels is of course controversial, not least because in February, UN Security Council resolution 1970 established an arms embargo that appeared to apply to all sides in Libya. It talked about banning sales to the Libyan nation - the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
However there were those, not least the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who argued that the subsequent UN resolution 1973 - the one that allowed all necessary means to be used to protect Libyan civilians - actually amended or overrode the earlier UN decision.
|
__________________
"There are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations"
James Madison
|
Linear Mode
