Amiti Aitelli blog

Libya: Why Western Forces Selectively Police the World

and] beatings of protestors."

This ruthless use of force against unarmed civilians was carried out not by Muammar Gaddafi, but by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the ruler of Bahrain, and backed up by troops from Saudi Arabia. And yet even as Western warplanes prepared to launch air strikes on Libya to stop Gaddafi's aggression, the U.S. and its allies barely registered even verbal condemnations of the crackdown in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. "We've urged the government and the opposition parties to engage in dialogue," said William Burns, the U.S. Under Secretary of State. Washington's unwillingness to intervene to stop a bloodbath in Bahrain has led skeptics to wonder why the Obama Administration has committed U.S. military power to do so in Libya. As Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson writes, "War in Libya is justifiable only if we are going to hold compliant dictators to the same standard we set for defiant ones."

This line of argument has surfaced in nearly every debate about Western military intervention since the end of the Cold War. The British even have a term for it: whataboutery. If you are prepared to go to war to protect Libyan civilians from their government, then what about the persecuted in Bahrain? If countering tyranny is the West's objective, what about Myanmar, whose military rulers are still in power despite massacring thousands of unarmed protesters in 2007? Or Ivory Coast, where government-sponsored violence has forced more than 700,000 people from their homes? Why did the U.S. undertake military action to prevent genocide against Muslims in Bosnia in 1995 but stand by a decade later in Darfur? If we are willing to use military force to help topple a tyrant like Gaddafi, then what about Robert Mugabe or Kim Jong Il?

The appeal of whataboutery arguments is that, from a pure moral standpoint, they are impossible to refute: it's certainly not evident that the Libyan regime is worse than North Korea's. And yet the resort to whataboutery is also deeply cynical. Insisting on moral consistency as a prerequisite for military action is a prescription for American paralysis and isolationism - which happens to be the goal of many proponents of whataboutery, on both the right and left. If we're going to police the world selectively, they would argue, we'd be better off not policing it at all.

Thankfully, most of the world rejects the idea of issuing free passes to tyrants. Even so, every intervention involves contradictions and moral trade-offs. The suffering of the Libyan people isn't any more extreme than that endured by millions living elsewhere under equally repressive regimes. The Libyan rebels don't necessarily deserve close air support any more than the demonstrators in Bahrain do. But doing something in Libya has proved better than nothing. It has prevented Gaddafi's forces from launching a full-scale assault on rebel-held cities and given the opposition time to regroup. Valid questions remain about the scope, duration and ultimate objectives of the NATO mission in Libya. But Operation Odyssey Dawn has so far succeeded in saving untold numbers of Libyan lives, and at less cost to the U.S. and its allies than even conservative military estimates had predicted.

So should we go further? What about places like Bahrain or Yemen or even Syria, where autocratic regimes have also used deadly force against their own people? Why not intervene there as well? The answer is that foreign policy isn't one size fits all - and in each one of those cases, the military and strategic risks of intervention would outweigh the potential humanitarian benefits. Ultimately, our reasons for intervening in other people's conflicts have little to do with either national security or the "responsibility to protect" civilians from slaughter. The world intervenes in places like Libya, and not in others, not because of any high purpose but for the simple reason that it is feasible to do so.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. As the war in Iraq showed, a crusading foreign policy can be just as dangerous as an inconsistent one. And yet we shouldn't dismiss every charge of Western hypocrisy as mere whataboutery. For years, the U.S. condemned the antidemocratic abuses of our enemies in the Middle East (like Iran), while overlooking those committed by our ostensible allies (like Egypt). Such double standards did more harm than good to American prestige - which is why the Obama Administration should now distance itself from the region's autocrats and side more openly with those struggling against them. The democrats of Sana'a and Damascus don't need the U.S. to stage armed interventions on their behalf. But they do expect America's policies to reflect American values. What about that?

Ratnesar, a TIME contributing editor-at-large, is a Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of Tear Down This Wall: A City, a President, and the Speech That Ended the Cold War. His column on global affairs appears every Monday on TIME.com.

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Ontario budget deficit narrowed by 11 percent

Ontario's budget deficit shrank by 11 percent in the current fiscal year, a government source said on Monday, a sharper reduction than the previous estimate thanks to reduced spending and a stronger economy.

The province's deficit for the fiscal year to the end of March will drop by C$2 billion ($2.1 billion) to C$16.7 billion, the source said, compared with an economic update given in November.

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan on Tuesday will present the province's last budget before an October election.

Facing mounting criticism over their efforts to narrow the deficit, Duncan and the ruling Liberals are under pressure to provide a convincing plan to bring provincial finances into balance.

The latest deficit estimate for theyear ending March 31 is C$3 billion less than the estimate given in last spring's budget.

"Our deficit is actually coming down faster than the federal deficit is," said Duncan, who backed the deficit figures disclosed by the source as accurate.

The finance minister also announced the province was investing in 60,000 new post-secondary school spaces.

He said education and health care -- which make up 70 percent of government spending -- will remain a priority, and expenses will rise even as the growth rate slows.

"We've made some progress," he said, "but we will not take a slash-and-burn approach."

The government of Canada's most populous province and manufacturing hub also sees slightly smaller deficits over the next three years, said the government official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Ontario is sticking with its plan of returning to balance by 2017-18, the official said.

That includes a C$16.3 billion deficit for 2011-12, (C$1 billion less than previously expected) and a C$15.2 billion deficit for 2012-13 (C$700 million below target) -- adding up to a C$4.7 billion improvement that reflects a stronger economy and expense cuts.

Ontario spent C$2.6 billion less on programs than expected this fiscal year and paid about C$400 million less interest on its debt than forecast with the help of low rates and healthy appetite for the province's bonds, the official said.

That allowed total spending to shrink to C$123 billion from an expected C$126 billion.

Duncan said last week that he has found C$1.5 billion in savings to help tame the deficit in coming years, but it won't resort to major spending cuts for fear of stalling the fragile recovery.

($1=$0.97 Canadian)

(Reporting by Claire Sibonney; Editing by Frank McGurty)

NFL star Ochocinco tries out for MLS team

Switching from football to soccer won't be easy for Chad Ochocinco, if it happens at all.

Locked out of his day job, Ochocinco opened a four-day tryout with Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday and by the end of his first day with the Major League Soccer team the star receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals was panting for breath.

"Exactly what I expected," the six-time Pro Bowler explained. "I would be a little winded being that I haven't ran at this pace or this level since the end of our season of football. It was fun. I didn't expect to come in here and be Superman."

Ochocinco plans to go through with the tryout, and, if possible, join the MLS team. The famously spotlight-hungry player insisted he was motivated by love for a sport that was actually his first choice until his grandmother persuaded him to focus on football after the 10th grade.

"I would play for free," he said.

Wearing No. 85, of course, Ochocinco worked out with more than 40 media representatives lining the practice field, roughly 10 times the number that normally show up for a midweek workout. He moved fluidly on the cold, blustery day and was taller than almost all the professional soccer players on the field.

His athleticism was obvious and so was his soccer rust after so many years away from the game.

"The time I've had off from the game of this football has been a very long time," he said. "There's no way I can make up that ground, the years I've been away from the game. But I do have a love for it."

With the NFL in a lockout and a court fight looming, Ochocinco has said now is a good time to check into another sport. Sporting Kansas City coach Peter Vermes said he tried to use the practice to help Ochocinco get acclimated to something new.

For much of the day, he had individual instruction from assistant coach Zoran Savic.

"He was a little bit hesitant early on, a little bit tentative," said Vermes. "But I think now he's got a good feel for what a day goes like for us. You can see he's very coachable. I wouldn't try to make any determinations at this point."

Vermes knows many people will view the tryout as a publicity stunt, either by Ochocinco or the team.

"I've said this before — I've always considered it from the very beginning to be a long shot. But I can tell you this, we bring trialists in all the time," Vermes said. "To be frank, they're always long shots. But we also bring guys in with much lesser physical tools than he has and they get trials with us as well. It's very normal in our sport to do this. It's just different because it's a guy who's coming from the NFL.

"I did not want it to be a media thing for him. He said it wasn't."

Ochocinco insisted he would have stayed with soccer and given up football if it had been practical.

"I had that talk with grandma. We talked about what do you want to do for your career," he said. "In that time in 1994, soccer was not the thing in the states, especially in high school. Football was the route I had to go and I put all my energy into that. With the lockout here, this is something I always wanted to do. It was her choice for me not to play soccer and now I have the opportunity to do it. It was always my No. 1 sport, my No. 1 love."

He also said he encountered no resentment from the established players when he showed up.

"I don't think I'm going to take anybody's job. It's not going to happen," he said. "These guys have been playing this game for years and I'm trying to make the transition from football to football. To come in here and take someone's job is pretty farfetched."

Knowing he'll eventually return to the Bengals when the players and owners settle their differences, Ochocinco said he would be content to just be a squad man and practice with Sporting Kansas City

"That would be fun," he said. "When the lockout, when it does happen, or we're able to go back and play, I'll be in better shape than everyone else because I might be the only one training at this level."

Citi wealth management chief McWhinney leaves

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Deborah McWhinney, the head of Citigroup Inc's (C.N) rapidly shrinking wealth management business, is leaving her post following a whirlwind two-year reign.

The executive, who once served as president of Charles Schwab Corp's (SCHW.N) division for independent investment advisers, is moving to a newly-created position as head of global digital merchant acquiring. She will work with corporate clients on payment processing, according to an internal memo from Paul Galant, Citigroup's chief executive of global enterprise payments.

The bank has not named a successor for McWhinney, signaling the diminishing importance of branch-based retail brokerage following the spinoff of Citi's Smith Barney brokerage business in June 2009 to a joint venture controlled by Morgan Stanley (MS.N).

McWhinney joined the bank in March 2009 after the Smith Barney deal had been announced.

She rapidly devised a new plan for her group's approximately 550 brokers by telling them to switch from a commission-based model for sales of mutual funds, annuities and other products to a fee-based model, similar to that used by most advisers at the Schwab unit that she ran.

She also ruffled feathers with a compensation plan that rewarded brokers for working in teams and by announcing a plan to refer clients with sophisticated planning needs to outside independent advisers.

Brokers headed for the exits. The sales force within McWhinney's banking/wealth management unit was almost halved within a year of her arrival. Today, it has around 400 advisers, according to a Citi spokesman.

McWhinney's plan to refer clients to outside advisers is now on hold, he said.

"A change like this puts the whole strategy at risk," said Alois Pirker, research director at Boston-based consultant Aite Group. "Given that they haven't announced a successor, I think there is potential they will wind down the business."

A Citigroup spokesman said the company has reiterated internally its "dedication to further building the wealth management business in order to provide clients with best-in-class investment products, services and advice."

(Reporting by Helen Kearney, Editing by Jed Horowitz)

I.Coast's Gbagbo challenges W.African bloc

ABUJA (AFP) – A lawsuit has been filed at a regional court in the name of Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo challenging West African bloc ECOWAS' demand that he step down in favour of his rival, officials said Monday.

The 15-member Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) in December held two emergency summits which recognised Alassane Ouattara as Ivory Coast president and demanded Gbagbo quit office.

The bloc has also threatened force to remove him if he defies peaceful efforts to have him step down.

"We have filed an application before the ECOWAS court of justice against the authority of heads of states and governments of ECOWAS," said Mohamed Faye, a lawyer who said he was representing Gbagbo.

A hearing has been set for March 10. A court spokesman confirmed that Gbagbo's name appeared on the lawsuit, and a clerk announced the Ivory Coast strongman's name when introducing the case on Monday.

Ivory Coast's electoral commission declared Ouattara the winner of the November ballot, a decision endorsed by the United Nations, but the country's constitutional court said Gbagbo had won.

Gbagbo has refused to step down despite global calls for him to do so.

Faye said Gbagbo was challenging ECOWAS leaders' "declaration because it violates the supremacy of the national constitutional court of Cote d'Ivoire, which is the judiciary organ in electoral matters."

"We are urging the court to hold that these pronouncements are illegal and if they are illegal, they are null and void, (and) that they should suspend any action in respect of these pronouncements," said Faye.

ECOWAS lawyer Obii Onuoha said she was unaware of the case and unprepared to respond.

A court registrar said he had served the ECOWAS commission with the court papers on February 7. ECOWAS spokesman Sunny Ugoh confirmed the commission had received the court papers.

"We were served. My understanding is that we were told very late for us to respond in a coherent manner," said Ugoh.

"We are hoping with the adjournment, it will be an opportunity to do consultations and look at it properly so that we can react."

Judge Awa Nana Daboya adjourned the case to March 10, along with two other cases filed earlier by groups believed close to Gbagbo.

Three non-governmental organisations last month asked the same court to nullify the bloc's stance that Gbagbo must leave office.

In a separate case, a Nigerian lawyer, Godswill Mrakpor, also sought an order to restrain ECOWAS from using force to oust Gbagbo.