I question your article “Coup against Gaddafi” (PN 2537). It shows how politicians could have betrayed the rebellion. But chaotically, it moved too quickly for that outcome. If it was a coup how could Western “spooks” have gained control? Consistently, the rebels refused any form of negotiation that kept Gaddafi in power. Their stance was against oil-interests which only wanted a return to oppressive “stability”.
I avoid the question of how many lives could have been spared if Gaddafi had been assassinated, to ask how could this popular revolution be turned into a coup? This was the Spanish civil war of our time, an event that could have stopped Hitler.
PN needs some dialogue between pacifists and anti-militarists. Such discussion occurs in groups in many places.
The Socialist Workers Party was also against the military interventions that toppled Gaddafi. They were following their usual set formula: “if it’s American and NATO, it must be bad”. In the chaos and confusion of a highly complex fast-moving situation our thinking needs to be flexible and not tied to formulas.