Attack on Libya

Press, 18 April 1986, Page 16

Attack on Libya

Sir, —I would have to agree that Muammar Gadaffi is a volatile and villainous character. However, seeing the latest range of popular toys on television prompts me to ask that we all think hard before rushing to take sides in political conflicts. We were presented with an action model of “Rambo," a very aggressive and heroic character in a movie, novel and video. He seems as much a lunatic as the Libyan leader. When will we accept that we have a type of terrorist operating commercially in our society fostering violence through toys, recreation, video and literature, all in the name of commercial enterprise. The “free world” is also diseased, but refuses to acknowledge the real . causes.—Yours, etc., lAN BAKER. April 14, 1986.

Sir,—Seeing President (“A man's gotta do what a man’s gotta do”) Reagan on television justifying America’s strike on Libya was chilling viewing. Sharyn Crosbie, on her return from America, commented that that country saw itself as the chief-. ‘'manager” for all the world’s smaller democracies. It also, with its current leadership, seems to see itself as avenger of all the world’s wrongs. “Overkill” appears to be the name of the present, American game. New Zealand is obviously going to be put under great pressure to toe the American line, or the American dream of “world democracy management” will. be seen to

have holes in it. I pray New Zealand will continue to have the strength and integrity to conduct and decide at least some of its own foreign policy.—Yours, etc., JILL WILCOX. April 16, 1986. Sir, —The latest event in the conflict between the United States and Libya has left me deeply shocked. President Reagan’s use of military might has only served to prove to those opposed to Western democracies that their worst beliefs are, in fact, real. Here is the President of the largest democratic nation in the world who has reduced the ideals of “freedom, tolerance, individual rights” to absolute rhetoric. He has committed an act of State terrorism on Libya, using the guise of Western ideals as a superior ideology; hence involving and implicating all of us who live in a "democracy.” I, for one, do not want to be accountable for the actions or crimes perpetrated on the people of Tripoli by President Reagan and I hold him morally responsible for his actions and the peripheral events that will most definitely occur. — Yours, etc., V. L. WILSON. April 15, 1986. Sir, —Anzac Day is near and marchers will again parade throughout the country. While we pause and think of absent comrades, some of us will remember being forced to fight over the waters of the Mediterranean, seeing mentorown as their ships were sunk under them. Now, in the same waters, Libyan sailors have been forced to fight and die; and mothers know their sons rest only in a watery grave. No Flanders poppies for them. Those who fought around and through Tripoli and Benghazi, seeing comrades blown up, can remember the scene of the premeditated attack organised by the Reagan Administration. Have we learnt nothing from history? Shall we always accept the final solution only as destruction and death? We should pause on Anzac Day, lest we forget, but also take some practical step in the quest for a secure, lasting peace. We each have the power. — Yours, etc., CHRIS KING. April 15, 1986.