Libya: International Air Strikes

Last night my friend and I had finished dinner and decided to catch up on developments in Libya. Comfortable, warm and safe with our democratic and human rights firmly in tact, we sat in front of the television screen, a membrane between our bodies and the horrors of the outside world. Protected from violation, preserved from any ideas that our world may suddenly be breached we watched a live report from Al Jazeera of a Libyan fighter plane that sustained a direct hit and crashed into the ground in Benghazi. It had only moments earlier been involved in air strikes over that area. As we watched the spectacle of it's streamlined silver body moving with great velocity through the sky and then leaping into flames before it rushed headlong towards the earth amidst a dense black cloud of smoke, I reminded myself not to get caught up in the absolutely spectacular cinematic visuals of such an event, as we all did when we witnessed the footage, played over and over again on television screens of Flight 175 as it struck the side of the South Tower of the World Trade Centre on 9.11.2001. I reminded myself that when the Libyan fighter jet hit the ground at 400mph that a pilot died in the instant of our watching and many civilians may have been injured by the debris. That we so readily relate to images of fire is understandable, the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard said fire, is intimate and it is universal. It lives in our heart. It lives in the sky. It rises from the depths of the substance and offers itself with the warmth of love. Or it can go back down into the substance and hide there, latent and pent-up, like hate and vengeance. (Psychoanalysis of Fire, 1938). The fire that we see emanating from the falling jet is a consequence of a failing mechanism, but it is also metaphor of the passion of a people who want human rights and the occasion to voice it - a sound to create transformation. The deafening vibrations of the two FA18 fighter jets that flew over Melbourne earlier this month, which unsettled my quiet little life for a few minutes took on new significance last night as I watched the Libyan footage. And I thought of the people, ordinary people like you or I who  must have experienced extreme panic as the jet hurtled towards the earth only kilometers from a large block of flats. Benghazi people were already fleeing to Egypt. My children were vomiting from fear said one woman in a report to Reuters. Benghazi residents were angry at the West's delay. "Europe and America have sold us out. We have been hearing bombing all night, and they have been doing nothing". I write this out of sympathy, I write this from the comfort of my home, I write this with no fear of retribution and that's such a blessing!