To maintain public support for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)âs proxy war with Russia, itâs important to erase its history of violence. The Canadian mediaâs refusal to mention NATOâs role in Libyaâs instability partly reflects the requirements of Ukraine propaganda.
In their coverage of the devastating flooding in eastern Libya, the Canadian media have all but refused to mention the 2011 NATO war on Libya, as this author detailed in âWe broke it, but refuse to own Libyaâs disasterâ. Adding weight to this authorâs initial media analysis, only one other article, a Medium article from an activist, has mentioned the Canadian general who oversaw the NATO war in 2011 (hundreds of articles mention his role in Libya previously).
In maybe the most extreme example of omission propaganda, CBC released the context focused âHow Libyaâs preoccupation with war left it vulnerable to epic floodingâ. The summary for a story released Friday notes:
Storm Daniel devastated the city of Derna, Libya, with severe flooding. The death toll could be as high as 20,000. Andrew Chang breaks down the political climate in the country that led to a preoccupation with war, which analysts say distracted from being able to react to the disaster.
But the 10-minute-long report failed to even mention NATOâs six-month war, which included Canadian fighter jets, naval vessels and special forces. Produced by Canadaâs public broadcaster for a Canadian audience, the prominent CBC host simply omitted the most politically salient point for his audience. In 2011 NATO fighter jets dropped thousands of bombs in a war that destroyed Libyaâs government, leading to years of violence and political division. The war reportedly disrupted repairs by a Turkish company on Dernaâs two dams and political division led to a disorganised evacuation of the devastated city.
From the standpoint of Canadian foreign policy mythology CBCâs omission is unnecessarily gratuitous propaganda. âBenevolent Canadaâ mythology isnât so brittle that it canât handle a quick mention of NATOâs war in Libya.
What explains the glaring omission is NATOâs proxy war in Ukraine. To maintain support for that obscene horror show weâve been bombarded with the claim NATO is a defensive alliance representing no threat to anyone. Repeated endlessly over the past 20 months, media personalities from Andrew Chang to Geoffrey York donât dare mention NATOâs role in destroying Libya. If that war turned out so bad then⊠Donât even think about it!
Itâs not only prominent journalists but also supposed media critics. CANADALANDâs Jesse Brown, Mattea Roach and Jonathan Goldsbie have refused to mention the NATO omission on Twitter or their podcasts. But they are undoubtedly aware of the remarkable propaganda feat since hundreds of thousands have liked, retweeted and viewed messages highlighting the mediaâs biased Libya coverage.
Dimitri Lascaris pointed out that âCanada spent $347 million (in 2011 dollars) to participate in NATOâs destruction of Libya. Canada is spending a paltry $5 million (in 2023 dollars) to aid Libyans in their moment of dire need. That, in a nutshell, is the ârules-based international orderâ.â
Irrespective of oneâs opinion regarding his conclusion, Lascaris has raised an important point. Contrasting military and aid spending was once common among aid groups and liberal commentators. But itâs tough to make the comparison if you canât even mention the war.
Source: Mronline.org
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