The West is silent as Libya falls into the abyss

[Jefferson23]

World View: In 2011, there was jubilation at Gaddafi's demise. Not any more: the aftermath of foreign intervention is calamitous and bloody

Sunday 2 November 2014

Remember the time when Libya was being held up by the American, British, French and Qatari governments as a striking example of benign and successful foreign intervention? It is worth looking again at film of David Cameron grandstanding as liberator in Benghazi in September 2011 as he applauds the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi and tells the crowd that "your city was an example to the world as you threw off a dictator and chose freedom".

Mr Cameron has not been back to Benghazi, nor is he likely to do so as warring militias reduce Libya to primal anarchy in which nobody is safe. The majority of Libyans are demonstrably worse off today than they were under Gaddafi, notwithstanding his personality cult and authoritarian rule. The slaughter is getting worse by the month and is engulfing the entire country.

"Your friends in Britain and France will stand with you as you build your democracy," pledged Mr Cameron to the people of Benghazi. Three years later, they are words he evidently wants to forget, since there was almost no reference to Libya, the one military intervention he had previously ordered, when he spoke in the House of Commons justifying British airstrikes against Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq.

The foreign media has largely ceased to cover Libya because it rightly believes it is too dangerous for journalists to go there. Yet I remember a moment in the early summer of 2011 in the frontline south of Benghazi when there were more reporters and camera crews present than there were rebel militiamen. Cameramen used to ask fellow foreign journalists to move aside when they were filming so that this did not become too apparent. In reality, Gaddafi's overthrow was very much Nato's doing, with Libyan militiamen mopping up.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-west-is-silent-as-libya-falls-into-the-abyss-9833489.html

[truth2power]

1. Like one or two other things around here

that are stated with absolute certainty to be "truth", and aren't.

I remember, during our "humanitarian intervention" in Libya, to assert that Gaddafi wasn't a monster, as portrayed by our Ministry of Truth, was a cause for ridicule. Not that the US government ever engages in demonization campaigns against leaders they don't like.

It was purely a co-ink-idink that Gaddafi wanted to divorce his country from the petrodollar and form a pan-African bank. And didn't he send those Goldman Sachs people packing after they "lost" a couple billion$$ in Libyan funds? They had to scuttle to the airport protected by bodyguards, so I read. Naughty, naughty, Muammer....don't piss off Uncle Sam!

Libya had the highest Human Development Index of any country on the African continent before we started meddling there. Now, the country is in chaos. And Hillary said, "We came; we saw; he died. *cackle*" Dear God! It turns the stomach!

I recommend reading, "Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO's War on Libya and Africa" by Maximillian forte.

[Jefferson23]

2. It is one terrible mess, and our role is shameful of course but what's next?

Once these situations are out of control, and they are, we are dependent on
those who created it to fix it..no confidence to be found there.

Thank you for the response and the recommended reading.

[KoKo]

3. Recommend....

[bemildred]

4. Yep. Yemen is not looking so stable and peaceful either. nt

[quadrature]

5. Arab Spring...codespeak for perpetual chaos ....nt