AP: Three years after US-NATO intervention, Libya is a failed state

[Stephanie]

horrible, this is Obama's and his comrades in arms handiwork in Foreign Policy...they have destroyed everything they've touched including us here at home

SNIP:

posted at 10:01 am on March 22, 2014 by Ed Morrissey





An anniversary passed this week that went almost completely unremarked — and for good reason. March 17th marked the three-year anniversary of the UN Security Council resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya to stop the Moammar Qaddafi regime from attacking rebel-held Benghazi and Ajdabiya, and the three-year anniversary on the 19th of the NATO war on Libya. French, British, and American planes began bombarding the Qaddafi regime, an air war that would continue for months — while Barack Obama refused to request Congressional approval for it. Later, Obama would claim that Libya represented the smart model of Western intervention.

If so, why did these anniversaries pass unremarked? The Associated Press report on the status of Libya today gives a very good answer, although it is not written as such. Libya has become a failed state, where the government’s writ doesn’t run outside of its capital, and not even everywhere within that. Not only is it a dangerous place, but it is a danger to the surrounding nations in north Africa too:

Libya, where hundreds of militias hold sway and the central government is virtually powerless, is awash in millions of weapons with no control over their trafficking. The arms free-for-all fuels not only Libya’s instability but also stokes conflicts around the region as guns are smuggled through the country’s wide-open borders to militants fighting in insurgencies and wars stretching from Syria to West Africa.

The lack of control is at times stunning. Last month, militia fighters stole a planeload of weapons sent by Russia for Libya’s military when it stopped to refuel at Tripoli International Airport on route to a base in the south. The fighters surrounded the plane on the tarmac and looted the shipment of automatic weapons and ammunition, Hashim Bishr, an official with a Tripoli security body under the Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press.

In a further indignity, the fighters belonged to a militia officially assigned by the government to protect the airport, since regular forces are too weak to do it.

Only a few weeks earlier, another militia seized a weapons’ shipment that landed at Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport meant for the military’s 1st Battalion, Bishr said. Among the weapons were heavy anti-aircraft guns, which are a pervasive weapon among the militias and are usually mounted on the back of pickup trucks.

Do those stories sound familiar? To Americans, they should. The US relied on militias for its consular security in Benghazi rather than its own armed forces, and ended up having its consulate sacked and four Americans killed, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, the first of his rank murdered in the line of duty in 33 years.

Now Europe is expressing shock, shock that decapitating a regime in north Africa without any boots on the ground to control the situation can create a failed state:

ALL of it here
AP: Three years after US-NATO intervention, Libya is a failed state « Hot Air

 

[Plasmaball]

Had we put boots on the ground you would be here protesting how Obama doesn't have the authority blah blah...so we can ignore your cut and paste

 

[JakeStarkey]

Stephanie's only point is to bawl racist crap.

 

[Old Rocks]

Ol' Staph is crying great crocodile tears over the fact we helped the Libyan People get rid of Kaddafi. The bastard had American blood on his hands, and got what he deserved. Libya belongs to Libyans. Neither the President or any other American is resposible for their irresponsibility. We helped give them the oppertunity to get it right. That is all we can do. After all, we see how Iraq turned out, after we spent trillions and over 4000 of our sons and daughters lives.

 

[waltky]

UN says violence in Libya gettin' worse...

UN Says Violence, Abuses in Libya Getting Worse
June 06, 2014 — The United Nations human rights office has denounced worsening violence in the eastern part of Libya, especially in Benghazi, where it says killings, human rights abuses and other forms of repression are escalating at an alarming pace.

UNOHCHR officials condemned the recent murder of the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross sub-delegation in Misrata, Libya, as one of the latest examples of the country's seeming lawlessness.

According to UNOHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville, eastern Libya has become a place where impunity reigns. “The government is effectively unable to exercise control over a large number of armed brigades. That is a major concern," he said. "The government does not have effective control over the whole country at all. Assassinations and other attacks systematically target state officials themselves, and facilities belonging to the state, particularly in the east." Colville says hardly a week passes without bombings or attacks by armed groups — sometimes on innocent civilians. While these groups should be answerable to the law, there aren't yet official laws on the books to enforce.

A rocket-propelled grenade damaged Libyan government offices in Tripoli

Beyond the deteriorating security situation, he calls Libya's judicial system broken and unable to address many human rights concerns. “For example, 7,000 people who continue to be deprived of their liberty without regard for due process: There have been reports on torture and other ill-treatment in detention facilities, the issues relating to detention of refugees and migrants transiting through Libya," he said. "Again, around 7,000 are believed to be detained, often in very poor conditions. Some of them have been detained for three years."

The United Nations published a report late last year focusing on the situation of torture and deaths in detention facilities throughout Libya. Colville notes the government has responded to the report and has been making an effort to improve this deplorable situation.

UN Says Violence, Abuses in Libya Getting Worse

 

[HenryBHough]

The Midas touch turns stuff to gold.

The Obama touch turns stuff to shit.

Moving right along.........

 

[TheOldSchool]

It joins Iraq and Afghanistan.