The US is in the process of sending more spies, investigators, Marines, and drones to Libya in response to this week’s attack on the consulate building, but this response is complicated by a chaotic security situation in post-war Libya.
“The CIA has fewer people available to send,” reports the Associated Press, “stretched thin from tracking conflicts across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.” The intelligence teams sent to Libya during the war have now been sent to the Turkish-Syrian border to aid the proxy war there.
Part of the problem is that the US-backed government NATO helped bring to power with their air war against the Gadhafi regime is not in control of the country and barely even recognized by most of the arms militias that span the country.
The Obama administration’s decision to send more forces and drones to Libya came in response to an attack on the US consulate building that killed the American ambassador, two US Marines and another American. An al-Qaeda affiliate is expected to have been behind the onslaught, and it may have even included infiltrators within the Libyan government security forces.
None of this bodes well for the future of American military involvement in the unruly and violent Libya, which it seems can only get messier, nor does it reflect well on the US-led NATO mission to impose regime change in the country, which did not bring a new democratic government as promised.
T'was Colin Powell that remarked "you break it, you bought it." He was of course speaking about IraqWarDeuce. Seems pretty damn spot on now. So much for "humanitarian intervention."
The U.S. is possibly entering the second phase of the war in Lybia. This time it will likely be a ground war. Also, it appears that Al Quida may have decided to strike back at the drone attacks.
And Ansar al Sharia forced the closure of the Benghazi airport? Then a major U.S. base is penetrated for the first time in Afghanistan. And 23 countries have risen up accross the Middle East,
North Africa, and central Asia united in opposition to the United States. The Arab spring might have begun to evolve into the Arab revolution.
Good news indeed!
The chickens are just coming home to roost. Years of catering to Zionist Israeli expansion at the expense of the Palestians, years of exploitation of Mid East oil resources, and horrible wars launched against Iraq and Afghanistan have all led to this point – a total rejection of American involvement in Arab affairs. This will not be "smoothed over" nor will it go away. The only good aspect is that although we may have "broke it, we do not own it" – we don't need to fix it, we just need to walk away. Would be nice if we were contrite about it, but even that is not necessary.
the ingratitude of those wretches
I hope you'er being facetious. They don't owe us anything. A dictator was removed who we kept in power.
That's what the brainless sheeple in the US think.
Sorry, Mr. Glasser, but considering that the US was quick to send not only mercenaries and drones but also ships and even the FBI shills, I seriously doubt that they had any trouble doing what you describe. If there's one thing the empire has no problems doing – and the unlimited budget proves it – is warmongering, invasion, occupation, aggression, killing, chaos, mayhem, pillage.
Can't find enough spies and loot to throw into the Libyan inferno? Why not lay off some DHS or TSA flunkies and then you'd have the cash? Better yet stop jetting about like royalty and watch the dollars add up.
Spending so much money because of an Ambassador's death, and his coworkers deaths are foolish. The United States is being led by its tail. Empire is stupid and is done for prestige. US unemployment is high and wasting resources in the sands of Libya is flawed.
Buy war stocks and share in the profits. But wait there's more!
Still taking the eyes off the ball. It's bad enough in sport, it's just begging for a tragedy when you're juggling.
So let's review. A war of aggression, initiated on the basis of false representations made to the UN, results in the quick overthrow of a long-entrenched Middle Eastern nationalist dictator. In the aftermath of the dictator's fall, however, competing armed bands spring up everywhere. Instability reigns, and increasingly the local population holds the US responsible for the widespread insecurity. The increasingly repressive apparatus put in place to "restore order" resembles nothing so much as the oppression of the prior ruler that the population hoped to escape, but without the stability and comparatively high standards of living for the region that the dictator's regime provided. Whose story is this? Iraq? Libya? Next Syria?