People who favored saving the civilian populations of Benghazi and other eastern Libyan cities from Qaddafi’s tanks and artillery have often been termed “interventionists.” But it turns out that there was more than one kind of interventionism. The Globe and Mail reports that documents discovered in mid-July show that state-owned Chinese weapons companies offered to sell Libya weaponry. The plan was to move items from Algeria or South Africa.
China has denied the report, but officials of the new Libyan government say the evidence is air tight.
It is alleged that Algeria was a source of weapons and support for Qaddafi.
China, Brazil, Russia and India worried that Libya would become a precedent for NATO intervention in their own countries. The fear is misplaced–after Iraq there is no appetite in the West for boots on the ground.
So it isn’t a question of interventionism. The question is who’s intervention you support.
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