Tag: Libya

Whatever one thinks of the pre-war regimes of Assad and Qaddafi, the majority of people in Syria were better off before the wars. This so completely undeniable, that anyone who claims otherwise is delusional or a liar (and hopefully on a payroll).

War should have the highest bar of all because, as was noted at Nuremburg, it includes all other crimes, from rape and murder on down, within it.

“We came, we saw, he died,” said Hilary Clinton. Evil. Beyond evil. Anyone with two brain cells, after seeing Iraq and Afghanistan, could predict that the Western allies couldn’t rebuild Libya and that it would be far worse off afterwards.

While not all of Europe’s refugee crisis is Libya- and Syria-related, a lot of it is, and Europeans (who, remember, pushed hard for regime change–especially the French) and Americans are morally, and should be legally, responsible for those refugees. Rather than refusing them, in a just world, they would be required to house and feed them, having been complicit in destroying their countries.

All of this is so obvious it should be beyond question to anyone remotely sentient.

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The Ongoing Libyan Catastrophe

By Ian Welsh

On April 9, 2019

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It’s worth remembering that before Hillary Clinton convinced Barack Obama to support bombing the hell out of Libya, Libya had the highest standard of living in Africa.

Today, it has open air slave markets and is fought over by various Jihadist groups. The so-called central government is a punching bag.

Even if you thought Libya was a bad place, run by a bad man (and he was no saint), the truth is that you never, ever, want the US to intervene in any country unless you want it to become a failed state wasteland. This isn’t your great-grandfather’s US; it isn’t the US which rebuilt Germany and Japan. This is late-Imperial-decline-America, incapable of nation building even at home, let alone in other countries.

Libya was the primary reason Clinton was unqualified to be President. After being for the Iraq war, Libya proved she had learned nothing; that she would make the same mistake again.

Libya has also contributed to destabilizing the EU, as it has contributed to the refugee crisis. Whatever problems the US has with the EU, and vice-versa, straight realpolitik suggest that you don’t undermine you second most important ally in the world (right after Japan) when a new hegemonic power (China) is rising to challenge your dominance.

But ultimately it’s about the people. About the harm. About the slavery, death, disease, rapes, and torture that the “intervention” led to. The attack was, ultimately, monstrous, judged solely on its results. Results which, after Iraq and Afghanistan, were easily predictable.

American liberals have this weird idea that they’re still the good guys, and that the US is a force for good in the world. It isn’t. The best thing for the world, and the US (and Americans), right now, would be for the US to remove its troops from around the world, stop attacking other nations (including drone bombing them) and mind its own business. There’s plenty of problems at home the US should fix first, before it ever goes abroad looking for monsters.

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Libyan Refugees and European Intervention

By Ian Welsh

On April 21, 2015

Comments

Perhaps, as Europe destabilized Libya through invasion and then failed to re-stabilize it afterwards, the Europeans should stop caviling about Libyan refugees and start rescuing them and helping them settle in Europe? (America and Canada might wish to follow suit.)

It could just be that intervening militarily in other countries should be the last resort, done very rarely. I know most European governments don’t care about the people they kill with their interventions, but the blowback in terms of terrorism, refugees, and economic effects might be worth considering?

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The horizon is not so far as we can see, but as far as we can imagine

Tag: Libya

The Simple Truth About Libya and Syria

The Ongoing Libyan Catastrophe

Libyan Refugees and European Intervention