Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog [5],
Libya has turned into a complete and total disaster zone/terrorist training camp ever since America and its allies decided to liberate it. While certainly not perfect under Qaddafi, it was an infinitely better place before NATO intervention than after. Not only that, but the entire justification for the “freedom” delivered to it by Western powers was, naturally, based on lies and propaganda. I covered this last month in the post, The Forgotten War – Understanding the Incredible Debacle Left Behind by NATO in Libya [6]. Here’s an excerpt:
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. ?
Unfortunately, the “failure” in Libya has now creeped into its neighbors’ backyards.
From the AP [7]:
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The two gunmen who killed 21 people at a museum in Tunis trained in neighboring Libya before carrying out the deadly attack and were known to authorities, Tunisian security officials said Friday.
The attack at the National Bardo Museum Wednesday has raised concerns about the spread of extremism in North Africa and particularly in Tunisia — the only country to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with a functioning democracy.
Spread of extremism in North Africa, brought to you by NATO.
In the country’s capital Tunis, hundreds citizens on Friday thronged the main avenue where demonstrators overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali four years ago, celebrating independence day in defiance of the attacks that left 17 cruise ship tourists dead.
Some danced draped in Tunisian flags and others held aloft hand-written signs that read “JeSuisBardo” for “I am Bardo,” a slogan that has captured attention as an anti-terrorism rallying cry on social media.
“We are here to say ‘no’ to terrorism,” said Astal Marwen, a 19-year-old political science and law student, at the rally. “The attackers are part of a small minority, and they have the wrong conception of what Islam is.”
Gotta hand it to the Tunisians. They should thank their blessings they’ve thus far avoided America’s freedom bombs.
The attackers slipped out of the country in December and received weapons training in Libya which is awash in well-armed militias fighting for control, said Rafik Chelli, a top official in the Interior Ministry in a TV interview late Thursday.
The Islamic State group, based in Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the Bardo attack. Several well-armed groups in Libya have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State.
As I noted on Twitter the other day:
Tunisia had its own Arab Spring, and is doing relatively well. Libya had an America Spring, and they are sending terrorists into Tunisia.
— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) March 20, 2015 [8]
