Is the reason NATO's heartfelt concern over the rising Libyan death toll?
Courtesy of CNN, that appears to be the television sound bite to be dished out by NATO member politicians. Here's Simon Henderson (a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy) on the rationale for NATO intervention in Libya:
"What's an acceptable number of civilian deaths? I don't know. Choose your figure," Henderson said. "At the very least, instead of having a casualty list certainly in the hundreds, possibly in the thousands, we don't want a casualty list numbering in the tens of thousands, or 100,000 or so."With all due respect, Simon, here's a figure for you: not-so-long ago NATO couldn't be bothered to lift a finger when approximately one million people were slaughtered in nearby Rwanda.
The below chart illustrates the real reason Libya's civil war matters more to the NATO powers that be than nearby Rwanda's:
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Source: Economist
