Between the Hammer and the Anvil: What Is A "Responsibility To Protect"?
What Is A "Responsibility To Protect"?
This is Nicolas and David. Hello, Nicolas and David! Nicolas and David love all of the good people of the world very much. When bad people hurt the good people of the world, Nicolas and David get very sad. When Nicolas and David get very sad, they say lots of things about a "Responsibility to Protect" the good people.
So when a bad man called Colonel Gaddafi threatened to hurt some good people in a place called Benghazi, Nicolas and David were very sad. "We cannot stand by while Colonel Gaddafi launches indiscriminate attacks on the good people in Benghazi with warplanes and artillery", says David. "Yes", says Nicolas. "We have a thing called a 'Responsibility to Protect' the good people of the world. We will protect the good people by launching indiscriminate attacks on the bad people with warplanes and artillery".
Do you know what a "Responsibility to Protect" is, children? It's a special law thing that Nicolas and David use to help the good people who are being bombed and shot at. Can you imagine how horrible it would be if you, your Mummy, your Daddy and all your friends were being bombed and shot at? That would be terrible!
So Nicolas and David help the good people by bombing and shooting at the bad people who are bombing and shooting at them, and also by bombing and shooting at the bad people's Mummies and Daddies and all their friends!
Nicolas and David are very, very brave.
This is Sirte. Sirte is a place that is far away. All the bad people live in Sirte. Nicolas and David are not actually sure how many of the people that live in Sirte are bad people, but once Nicolas and David and their new friends are finished bombing and shooting at them, they won't be able to tell us whether they are bad people or not! Nicolas and David are very clever.
To help them to protect the good people, Nicolas and David use some special tools to bomb and shoot at the bad people in Sirte and their Mummies and Daddies and all their friends. This is a Panavia Tornado GR1. It is a big plane that makes lots of noise. It fires big rockets that go Whoosh! and then go Bang! and make all the bad people fall down dead. We know they are bad people because Nicolas and David's new friends say that they are bad people. So they must be bad!
This is an artillery battery. Artillery batteries fire big bombs that go Whoosh! and Bang! and make the bad people fall down dead, as well as making everybody else within a fifty metre radius fall down dead too! Artillery batteries are silly things, because they don't know the difference between bad people and bad people's Mummies and Daddies and all their friends. They make everybody fall down dead! Nicolas and David's new friends like artillery batteries very much. Nicolas and David's new friends are using lots and lots of artillery batteries so that the bad people can't use artillery batteries. Using artillery batteries is bad, except when the good people use them!
This is a flak gun. It fires lots and lots of big bullets very, very quickly. A flak gun is used to shoot down planes, but Ooops! The bad people don't have any planes! Nicolas and David's new friends use a flak gun to shoot at snipers. Snipers are bad men who hide in buildings and do bad things. Nicolas and David's new friends are afraid to go into the buildings to stop the bad men doing bad things. So Nicolas and David's new friends use a flak gun to fire lots and lots of big bullets into the buildings, floor by floor, room by room, for a very long time indeed, until all of the bad people inside fall down dead. The bullets are so quick and so big that they go right through the building and out the other side and into other buildings! They make everybody in the building fall down dead, as well as making everybody in other buildings behind them fall down dead too! Can you imagine?
These are the bad people's Mummies and Daddies and all their friends. After Nicolas and David and their new friends had been bombing and shooting at the bad people and their Mummies and Daddies and all their friends for a week, they stopped bombing and shooting for a little while, to let some of the Mummies and Daddies and friends run away. That was nice of Nicolas and David, wasn't it? A lot of silly Mummies and Daddies didn't run away and are still in Sirte. Silly Mummies and Daddies! I wonder how many Mummies and Daddies fell down dead? Who knows?
And this is Mr Terrorist. Hello, Mr Terrorist! Mr Terrorist is a bad man. Nicolas and David's new friends can tell that Mr Terrorist is a bad man because he is brown. He wants to use planes and artillery batteries and flak guns to hurt the good people! Nicolas and David have stopped him from hurting the good people by bombing and shooting at Mr Terrorist, as well as Mr Terrorist's Mummy, Mr Terrorist's Daddy and all of Mr Terrorist's friends. Nicolas and David's new friends might make sure that Mr Terrorist can't hurt any more good people by shooting Mr Terrorist in the back of the head and burying him in a little hole in the ground. If they do that, then policemen can't find Mr Terrorist. Nicolas and David's new friends do not like brown people very much. Silly Mr Terrorist!
And that's what the "Responsibility to Protect" means, children! Thank goodness that Nicolas and David and their new friends are clever and brave enough to help the good people by bombing and shooting at all the bad people, their Mummies and Daddies and all their friends.
Haven't we learned lots of new and exciting things today?