SLL will be on vacation 5/17-5/21 and will resume posting 5/22.
The mess Hillary and Barack created in Libya just keeps getting worse. From Michael Krieger at liberty blitzkrieg.com:
In retrospect, Obama’s intervention in Libya was an abject failure, judged even by its own standards. Libya has not only failed to evolve into a democracy; it has devolved into a failed state. Violent deaths and other human rights abuses have increased severalfold. Rather than helping the United States combat terrorism, as Qaddafi did during his last decade in power, Libya now serves as a safe haven for militias affiliated with both al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). The Libya intervention has harmed other U.S. interests as well: undermining nuclear nonproliferation, chilling Russian cooperation at the UN, and fueling Syria’s civil war.
As bad as Libya’s human rights situation was under Qaddafi, it has gotten worse since NATO ousted him. Immediately after taking power, the rebels perpetrated scores of reprisal killings, in addition to torturing, beating, and arbitrarily detaining thousands of suspected Qaddafi supporters. The rebels also expelled 30,000 mostly black residents from the town of Tawergha and burned or looted their homes and shops, on the grounds that some of them supposedly had been mercenaries. Six months after the war, Human Rights Watch declared that the abuses “appear to be so widespread and systematic that they may amount to crimes against humanity.”
As a consequence of such pervasive violence, the UN estimates that roughly 400,000 Libyans have fled their homes, a quarter of whom have left the country altogether.
– From the post: The Forgotten War – Understanding the Incredible Debacle Left Behind by NATO in Libya
Earlier today, The Guardian published an article detailing how foreign leaders were gathering in Vienna to discuss how to address the humanitarian disaster/ISIS haven they themselves created in Libya. As usual, the key agenda item revolved around whether the U.S. and its allies should ship weapons into the arena to inspire, you know, freedom and democracy.
Reading the piece leaves you with a clear sense of what a quagmire it really is. For example:
Leading foreign ministers from Europe and the Middle East are to meet in Vienna on Monday under the joint chairmanship of the US and Italy to discuss how to bolster support for the UN-backed Libyan government in the face of deepening splits in the country over political legitimacy, oil resources and Islamic State.
Special forces from the US, UK, France and Italy are operating in various parts of Libya, sometimes backing different military forces and hindering efforts to reunite Libyan politics behind the UN government of Fayez al-Sarraj.
Remember this paragraph for later.
Sarraj has been trying to broaden his authority in Tripoli since he and his political allies arrived in late March, taking over key institutions such as the central bank and the National Oil Corporation, but he still faces a rival administration, and military power, in the east. Disputes between the factions are such that bankers on one side are depriving the other access to the code to a bank vault containing badly needed cash to pay staff. Different groups are also trying to export oil.
Officials say that at the Vienna meeting on Monday, which will be held under the joint chairmanship of the US and Italy, the fledgling Tripoli administration is likely to submit a list of requests for western partners to assist its forces with arms, training and intelligence. The meeting will be chaired by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and the Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni.
To continue reading: Weapons Headed to Libya – Hillary Clinton’s Interventionist Disaster Continues to Spiral Out of Control
