Kasama, May 1, 2011

On April 15, 1986, Ronald Reagan launched a decapitation airstrike against the head of Libya’s government. The attacks failed to kill Gaddafi.

In the wave of attacks dozens of Libyans were killed, among them a young girl who was the adopted daughter of Libyan leader Gaddafi.

It was, at the time, considered an outrage and a barbarity — both that a major power sought to assassinate heads of state, and also that the casualties might include children in his household.

Now Reagan has been outdone.

The NATO attacks on Libya have shifted to a new attempt to assassinate Gaddafi attacking his homes — and now reportedly killing his youngest son Seif al-Arab, 29, and three of Gadhafi’s grandchildren, all younger than 12.

The layers of deceit and deniability are deep:

NATO claims it is only "protecting civilians" in keeping with a UN resolution. They claim they are only attacking military targets. The Obama administration is (in keeping with "multilateralist" imperialism) claiming to act with and through its allies. And so on.

But it is important to compare Obama here with his predecessors: He has continued the Guantanamo of Bush. He has continued the Iraq occupation. He has escalated the Afghanistan war — increasing the U.S. occupation forces and expanding it into Pakistan. He has greatly escalated the use of covert assassination (meaning U.S. death squads) around the world — killing targets and whoever is near them.

And now, they have taken up the practice of seeking to assassinate government leaders of other countries that they do not like. The very notion of "self-determination for nations" is removed from the table by their imperialist logic. And now Gaddafi’s grandchildren lie dead in the ruble