The new can of worms now being opened in the Middle East is the direct result of one of President Obama’s most idiotic moves, namely, the unprovoked attack on Libya last year that he ordered and then went on vacation in Brazil to announce to the world, claiming earlier that the “little war” would be over in days, not weeks. It lasted seven months and went far beyond the initial aim, accomplished in four days, of establishing a “no-fly zone.” The administration has never divulged what it knows about the Libyan deaths caused by the U.S. and NATO, i.e., if it knows anything…or cares.
The act of making war on Libya was whitewashed under the rubric of saving the Libyans from their dictator/tyrant of two generations – Moammar Qaddafi. This is what the ladies the president sent to Washington presented to the Security Council, which, with key abstentions, said “Go get Qaddafi, we don’t like him, either.” Why should Russia or China care about Libya, population 2 million less than that of New York City, which sold its oil to Europe (not the U.S.) anyway?
Defense Secretary Gates, who had inveighed mightily against this tragic mistake and was in Russia when the dear leader announced his “little war,” pronounced it as done “on the fly.” Translated, this means without sufficient planning. As transparent as it was, his statement understated the fact – total disaster not surprisingly perpetrated by a president who probably doesn’t yet know a salute from an obscene gesture…or care to know.
Now, as Obama’s mentor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah (God damn America) Wright, would insist, the chickens have come home to roost. The problem: how to deal with insurgents/rebels to whom fighting (sometimes just each other) is all they know to do. Libya is a mess, for which the administration had/has virtually no understanding, as evidenced by the overwhelming incompetence recently exhibited regarding the safeguarding of American workers in that benighted country.
Four Americans died, one, the ambassador, probably tortured, as well. It’s obvious that the administration (Obama) knew exactly what happened but rather than admit it, simply manufactured a falsehood of immense proportions, blaming a planned terrorist attack on a movie about Mohammad, progenitor of the cult of Islam. Then, the apparatchiks like UN Ambassador Rice and press-spokesman Carney were sent out to TV-land to spout the line. It didn’t work and now the citizenry knows all about what happened – or at least as much as the administration, which, actually, may not be much at all.
But…what to do with those pesky insurrectionists who now have nothing to do in Libya except fight each other, which does get old after a while, especially for the al Qaeda types to whom beheading is such a joy. Thanks to all the goodie-good nations in 2011, they have more weapons of all kinds than they know what to do with, so why not collect the weapons, go on over to Syria (about the size of North Dakota) and join the rebels there – Muslims against Muslims…perfectly normal and in a small area of 23 million people – just the right size and type for close-up killing.
The Libyan “little war” was over in October 2011, but the Libyan government (such as it was, if anybody knew) was already parleying the next month with folks like the Turks in the interest of making Syrian President Assad get out of Dodge (okay, Damascus), preferably with his toes turned-up. The latest news is that this is what’s happening – sorta like al Qaeda bivouacking with the dissidents (though no one knows one from the other, with regard to agendas).
So, in April this year, the Lebanese impounded a ship headed for Tripoli, Lebanon, that was loaded with weapons from – you guessed it – Libya. The weapons were headed for the Syrian rebels and had to be transported across Lebanon, now under the control of the Sunni Muslims, no friends of Assad, who leans on Iran’s Ahmadinejad and the Shiites.
But why not just land the weapons, which bore various Libyan markings, in a Syrian seaport – Lattackia or Tartous, both close to Aleppo, Syria’s largest city? Don’t the Iranians land their ships in those ports? Well…yes, but Aleppo has been under attack by the Syrian military for a long time and Syria still has an air force that could wipe out any movement around either port. As the weapons are smuggled into Syria through Lebanon, the Middle East will become even more of an international catastrophe going somewhere over there to happen.
All of this is to say that if Obama’s attack, with his glorious new military tactic called “leading from behind” (the mother of all oxymorons), had never happened, this Libya/al-Qaeda intrusion vis-a-vis Syria would not be threatening world peace today. Qaddafi would have finished his purge, a very routine happening in Muslim-controlled countries (as in Syria now and Egypt and Tunisia earlier) and Obama wouldn’t be up to his ears in lies.
As it is, world leaders must have been wondering ever since Obama, with absolutely no provocation and no approval of Congress, decided to jump Libya – sorta like an elephant settling an argument with a gnat. He can’t come clean on this because there was NO reason for the Libyan massacre, either in March – October 2011 or that of the Americans on 11 September.
This nation is leaderless.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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