Tariq Ali Joins the Stampede

Tariq Ali has joined the stampede of dinosaurs over the cliff with his latest piece in the Guardian.  Yet another dead Denialist history lesson dripping with contempt for the people and their sacrifices. And typically economical with the sequence of events and causality.

"The so-called pre-empting of a massacre has led to the killing of hundreds of soldiers, many of whom were fighting under duress, and permitted the ghastly Muammar Gaddafi to masquerade as an anti-imperialist. Here one has to say that whatever the final outcome, the Libyan people have lost. The country will either be partitioned into a Gaddafi state and a squalid pro-west protectorate led by selected businessmen, or the west will take out Gaddafi and control the whole of Libya and its huge oil reserves."

Let's deal with the twin piece to this as well (Libya is another case of selective US vigilantism).
The sheer pettifogging defeatism is breathtaking. Not to mention the mindless petty points scoring.
"The US-Nato intervention in Libya, with United Nations security council cover, is part of an orchestrated response to show support for the movement against one dictator in particular and by so doing to bring the Arab rebellions to an end by asserting western control, confiscating their impetus and spontaneity and trying to restore the status quo ante."

And how will they seize power from a Libyan people now more class-conscious and unafraid than any revolutionaries in history? Tariq Ali is guaranteeing that battle will be lost before it has a chance to be fought. A dead revolutionary is no revolutionary at all.
Get rid of Gadaffi first, by any means, then deal with anyone else who wants to try their luck.
Why are the pseudo-intellectual pacifist left so determined to sneer at the resolution of the Libyan people, and to treat them like children who need guidance from Hampstead?

"It is absurd to think that the reasons for bombing Tripoli or for the turkey shoot outside Benghazi are designed to protect civilians."
It is despicable to throw Bengazi and Misuratah to the wolves. And death to the revolution. And as it happens, the strikes on Gadaffi murder-weapons are protecting civilians, by definition. What sources in Libya does Ali cite? None. He doesn't seem to have any friends among the Libyan revolution either.
And what is his solution? Nothing. In fact the only 'point' peeking through the rhetoric is that acting in Libya is somehow illegitimate while there is no action in Bahrain. So Ali's great insight is that Two Wrongs Do make a right. We shouldn't do anything in Libya or Bahrain, or anywhere else we suppleid with weapons to suppress the people. In fact, we should do nothing at all but watch the blood flowing in the gutters. It's as if the Denialists are in league with the arms dealers.