STOP THE WAR AND THE SHADOW OVER DOUGLAS HURD

‘(Reuters) - The moderate National Forces Alliance of wartime prime minister Mahmoud Jibril scored a landslide victory over rival Islamist parties in Libya's first free national election in a generation, partial tallies showed on Thursday.[1]’

So there will be the uncorking of champagne bottles and partying into the night at The Stop the War Coalition with John Pilger and Noam Chomsky dropping by to clink a glass or two. Despite all their misgivings western intervention has led to a successful transition to democracy, “three cheers for the Libyan liberation.” Well then again perhaps not.

This week also saw the 17th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, a ‘victory’ for the non interventionists, the most prominent of whom was our then foreign secretary Douglas Hurd. Hurd’s role during this period remains a stain on the man, the colour of congealed blood. Following the StW style prescriptions, ‘intervening would make things worse, complex situation, Serbian history etc,’ combined with a strain of Chamberlain style appeasement, ‘far off country, no British interests, not worth the bones of a British grenadier,’ adding his own memorable phrase apropos the lifting of the arms embargo on Bosnia, “we would create a level killing field.” [2] Mr Hurd preferred a killing field of the more uneven variety.

The net result of Hurd’s appeasement of the Serbs was that young men, old men, boys of fifteen were taken out into the fields around Srebrenica, some after they had been hideously tortured, and shot in the back of the head. I don’t know whether Mr Hurd has sleepless nights, I only know that he bloody well ought to.[3]

It is chilling to think that in something like 17yrs time we could have been commemorating the anniversary of the great Benghazi massacre of 2010, instead of which we witness Libya taking the first tentative steps toward democracy.

The non interventionists have their way in Syria, allowing Assad to have his way with the Syrian people and he is not showering them with chocolates and flowers. With their customary chutzpah the StW crowd go around with their heads held high proclaiming that it is people like my self who supported intervention in Libya who have something to be ashamed about!

[1] By Hadeel Al Shalchi and Marie-Louise Gumuchian
TRIPOLI | Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:09pm BST
[2] Hurd also resisted pressure to allow Bosnian refugees to enter into Britain arguing that to do so would reduce pressure on the Bosnian Government to sue for peace!
[3] I saw Mr Hurd one morning travelling in to central London on the tube looking rather like the essentially benign older man that he is. Considered something of an intellectual, he also writes novels, he argued for a particular brand of realpolitic, others were to pay the price of Mr Hurd’s intellectual brilliance.
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