A US military ground operation began and ended without much fanfare earlier this week in Libya, the Pentagon admitted today, in a shockingly bungling effort to secretly establish a presence of US special forces in the country.
A group of about 20 US soldiers, armed with assault rifles and bulletproof vests, but conspicuously not wearing uniforms, showed up in the Wattiya airbase, just south of Tripoli Monday. Pictures of the US troops were published by the Libyan Air Force on their Facebook page.
The Air Force pointed out the troops arrived with no coordination and apparently no approval, though the Pentagon claims to have gotten an okay from some government faction or other, but apparently not the right ones, as local commanders quickly demanded that the US troops leave, and the Pentagon says they did to “avoid conflict.”
Pentagon officials further claimed the deployment was a “training mission” aimed at enhancing ties with the Libyan National Army, but didn’t explain why they sent the troops in wholly unannounced, nor why the troops were clearly combat-ready but out of uniform.
Recent conferences on Libya among NATO members, including one earlier this month in Rome, have had several nations talking up the idea of sending troops. It is surprising to learn, then, that the US went first, bungling their way into Libya and almost immediately getting chased out.
What's despicable (and impeachable) is that stunts like this are being carried out by the US military every week.
USA's 'little green men'.
Must be a disappointment for these "commandos". No democracy delivered today from the barrels of their weapons. Great to see the hypocrisy exposed.
I'm sure if someone bothered to ask "Ash" Carter, just as his use of his private email to perform USG work was admitted to be a "mistake" this deployment of snake eaters was also a regrettable "mistake." This administration has had more than its share of "mistakes" when it comes to foreign interference. I should think that by now they've earned the moniker of Keystone Kops, gen-X version.
Libya needs a Trump who can say " no more Americans until we figure out what's going on"
The world is the battlefield and the US is the world's brutalizing police force, so sure why not just show up everywhere you want to do whatever it is you want to do… Not unlike the Mossad in the US.
Well, this does not speak well of US diplomacy and worse of US Special Forces that they entered Libya incognito, were quickly identified by the Libyan Air Force and were subsequently kicked out.
If the US cannot even perform a small op like this in war-torn Libya it demonstrates how incompetent US military management has become.
And these idiots want to go to war with Russia, China, and Iran? Good luck with that!
Libyan Air Force "You can leave or you can meet Chris Stevens' fate."
American Commandos "We'll leave."
It's a bitch out there without air support.
One can only imagine what would happen if a similarly equipped group of Libyan "special forces" in mufti arrived at say, O'Hare airport in Chicago without any warning or formal invite or approval.
My, my. I guess sending non uniformed soldiers into a foreign nation without permission is no longer spying, invasion or act of war. If the USA does it.
Yankee go home.