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Accountability is not only for the bad guys

A Libyan e-penpal writes

As you know the Russians proposed two days ago a project at the U.N. to investigate on the Libyan victims committed by NATO according to Russia. We as Libyans are proud of the involvement of NATO and the United States who freed us with our Libyan fighters from the deposed dictator “Gaddafi”. Even if there were casualties, we as Libyans are confident that it is by pure mistake or by premeditation of the dictator’ forces, who put weapons and artilleries in civilian homes. Everyone in Libya and in the entire world knows the attitude of the Russians when the revolt against “Gaddafi” began February 17, 2011. What we can say is the total hypocrisy of the Russians. Once again, we thanks the U.S.A. and NATO.

I am grateful for the confidence this Libyan and many others place in NATO and the U.S. During my visit to Libya in September I was often stopped on the street to be told how much the intervention was appreciated.  Certainly the Russians are less interested in getting to the facts of the matter and more interested in embarrassing NATO.

But I have to confess that I would like to see NATO do its own unclassified after action assessment of civilian damage, cooperatively with the new Libyan authorities.  Whether or not we ever conduct an operation exactly like this one again, doing a serious assessment would provide vital information for protection of civilians in the future.

So far, NATO has apparently left  the investigating to nongovernmental organizations and the press.  They do an admirable job, but what they cannot do is figure out how to decrease harm to civilians in future operations.  I have no doubt but that NATO intends to do that–there is just no mileage in killing civilians for the Alliance–but it also has to take the trouble to determine exactly how mistakes occur in order to correct them.

If NATO continues to resist a public inquiry, it will feed the Russian propaganda mill.  Better to sit down with the Libyan authorities, the NGOs and the New York Times to figure out how a serious investigation can be conducted.  Then go do it.  Anyone who claims undertake military action as part of the “responsibility to protect” should be willing to do that much.  And the present Libyan authorities, who no doubt fear that such an investigation will extend to the behavior of some of the anti-regime rebels, need to begin to assemble the facts that will eventually be needed to sort out who did what to whom.

Accountability cannot be limited to the bad guys.