Odyssey Dawn must be viewed soberly

0 CommentsPrint E-mail Global Times, March 23, 2011
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The Pandora's box of the Libya crisis has been opened. It is now irretrievably set to be a bewildering and painful process, no matter whether the crisis ends with Gaddafi's downfall or Libya's separation.

It is predictable that this region will not know real order for months, or even years.

The entire world will suffer from the Middle East's unrest. The US, the UK and France are probably the three most uncomfortable powers. It is a burdensome and risky task to guide the Middle East revolution in a certain direction, and the three powers have now become locked in this quagmire.

Yemen has also now fallen deeper into chaos. It is more difficult to manage the dynamics in this region. Western powers seeking to positively intervene in the region are now paying the costs. Surprisingly, these powers have won some support from China's netizens.

Recently, some Chinese discussed the priority between state sovereignty and human rights on the Internet, and even concluded that Western air strikes against Libya were under the aegis of justice. At first glance, this looks like propaganda by Western idealists.

In fact, the importance of human rights has become a social consensus in China. It is unnecessary to approach this discussion using the Libyan crisis as a subtext. What China really needs to think about is to consider practical measures to further promote its human rights.

Discussions on the Internet should maintain a moral line, including fundamental national interests. States are political and economic entities. Different nations have different interests, and the powerful ones are able to realize their own interests more easily. This reality is evident.

The West has dominated the world for centuries, and clinging to world dominance still remains its major strategy. The air assault against Libya is partly motivated by sympathy toward Libyan civilians. Nevertheless, it is primarily a political decision taken by a few Western powers, and the very first message it delivers is that these Western powers are still the judge and executioner on a global level.

As a rising nation, China lacks experience in dealing with complicated international affairs. However, we should at least bear in mind that the West should not have the right to dispose of any country at will, no matter how awful this country's situation may be. Western intervention against Libya should be strictly limited. Their excessive intervention must be condemned.

China is still a weak player in the realm of ideas. Western countries have been our mentors over the past decades. However, we should clearly understand that these mentors maintain their own interests.

We ought to learn from them; but at the mean time, we should never be deceived by them in certain areas.

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