Libya - I am so pissed off.
Why?
First, there was no reason to invade yet another PNAC, neocon target. Khadafi's rule was, if anything, more benign than how it was portrayed to us poor saps on our side of the pond. He was not invading his neighbors, he posed no threat to us or to our allies, and he had some pretty diverse groups under control.
And then, the evil cabal of Sidney blumenthal and Hillary Clinton took over.
And Obama blew it big time because of them.
Recall just what a skunk Blumenthal is. He was so toxic, that despite pleas and demands from Hillary, he was banned from the Obama state department. Blumenthal was the arsehole who concocted the idea of a "permanent campaign," while he served with Bill Clinton. Unfortunately, that meant that most of the time, Bill's White House was concentrating on attacking those who dared attack Bill, or even question his policies.
Sidney has no administrative background. In fact, his education is on par with Sarah Palin's, except she achieved her degree by experiencing additional forums. When working for Bill, his was the voice that I hated and distrusted most about Clinton.
So, after finding her darling Sidney banned from State, what did Clinton do? She gave him a job at her Foundation, and still ended up exchanging top secret information with him, and relying on his often flawed advice.
Let's not even start examining the email system Hillary created to keep Sidney in the loop, and its ramifications on policy and keeping our secrets secret. Or the top secret info clearly referenced by Sidney in his emails to Hillary. (Just HOW THE FUCK did Sidney get his claws on top secret information? You want to fill us in on that, Hillary? You realize that not just breaks several federal laws, it fractures them completely)
Back to Libya. My trust and good feelings about Obama were shaken when we started destabilizing Libya. The "why" had never been addressed in public. We were simply told it needed to be done.
Immediately, it became a mess. Previously quiet sects became empowered and armed themselves. (Did no one in our leadership ever consider this possibility?) They became violent and the chaos that ensued engulfed the entire country. In the resulting power vacuum, enemies vied for an advantage, with ISIL eventually gaining a strong foothold where it never could have existed before.
We attacked and destroyed Libya for one reason, and one reason only. Hillary (following Sidney's advice and requests) wanted us to do so. And along the way, her Foundation prospered. And sadly, she convinced Obama to do the dirty. And all the while, the Clinton Foundation profited from it.
The chaos there now has all the appearances of a civil war that exists when you have a failed state. This armed conflict will exist for decades BECAUSE we destroyed a stable regime. Their blood is on our hands, folks. We caused this.
Yesterday, Obama played the realist again. Well, almost. He correctly admitted his greatest failing - Libya, but his approach and his description were laughable and disheartening. His admitted mistake? There was no planning for a post- invasion Libya.
Geez, mr. President. Where the fuck were you during the Bush administration and its invasion of IraqNam? Are you too ineffably stupid to learn from out past - and very very recent - mistakes? Mistakes which still haunt us to this day? Shame on you, Mr. President. Shame on you for four reasons:
A. Destabilizing and destroying a viable, stable country's government.
B. Relying on a neocon like Hillary to come up with that decision
C. Failing to plan for a post regime change situation in a place as complex and dangerous as th muddle east
D. Failing to admit your real failure in judgment and policy- namely to destroy Libya in the first place.
I am disappointed in Trey and other GOPers, too. They had the Intel, they had ample opportunity, and they fucking squandered it. Never did they ask the key question: why did we go to Libya in the first place? And what was that snake, Sidney Blumenthal's role in creating the mess that led to Benghazi? Inept morons really cannot be relied upon to do a professional job, and the GOP run committee proved just how inept they were.
Mr. President, you admitted the wrong mistake. Yes, you committed the one you admitted to. You repeated the idiotic and moronic act of destroying a country and having no post-destruction plan in place. Your actions did create a helhole that will cause untold suffering for its people for a generation to come. And that blood is on your hands.
But you refused to admit your real and far more serious mistake. The destruction of a viable mainly peaceful country, leading to nonstop riots, civil war and death. And worse, you fail to admit your even more serious failure. The fact that you relied on Hillary's advice in the first place.
Clearly, despite her experience and resume, her judgment is fatally flawed. But so was yours in relying on her judgment.
As an aside, one big part of her "experience" was being First Lady. Since when was that a reason to make someone president? If it is relevant, then logically, she is responsible for the many failures of her husband's presidency.
Comments
Jip Tar.
That's what they call the low quality oil in Libya.
righteous rant, Pastor!
“There are moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory… ”
― Lawrence Durrell, "Justine"
And Iraq was recent, easily
And Iraq was recent, easily review-able history....but then again, he is also showing signs of being more pro-corporate and less Progressive than he advertised.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
And they started bombing on the anniversary of the Iraq invasion
The whole thing was infuriating. And it wasn't just Obama who blew it, it seemed like the entire Left blew it. There was very little protest. Why? Because it was Obama doing it. The Left showed its true colors. Not only was there little protest, many on the Left were fighting the few of us who did loudly protest the Libya regime change operation. In a pretty vicious way. I think that's when I began to detach myself from the so called Left. I had already detached to some extent from the D party but that was the point at which I knew I did not fit in the "Left".
Grrrrrr. I forgot that.
Happy anniversary. Here, we broke your country. So, we will give it back to you. But at least you breath freedom air, am I right?
But Joanne
It was a humanitarian intervention as everybody knew that Khaddafi was an evil evil terrorist dictator and Libya needed to be liberated and democratized. It had nothing to do with Libya's National Oil Company just as invading Iraq nothing to do with oil deals gone bad....
https://www.rt.com/news/libya-all-about-oil-818/
The 'left' as defined by the Democratic party and the denizens of dkos detached itself from anything resembling liberal or progressive. There is no longer any gauge of political direction as The pump don't work 'Cause the vandals took the handles' The political spectrum compass doesn't work any more it's directionless. One of the first replies to a comment I made when I joined dkos was from Armando who said 'There is no Left, left'. Left, Center, Right are misdirection's intended to get us all lost. According to the 'Centrists' I've gone to the Right or the other way Far Left. I refuse to call the Third Way direction moderate. All I know is there is no direction home for this Lefty. Don't even get me started on what's called progressive. Progress now means going backward and calling it 'the way forward'.
I was shocked, really,
to hear him say that. (That his worst mistake was failing to plan for the "day after" "intervening" in Libya.) Not shocked that there was no planning, or that there was not even a second thought about the aftermath, but shocked he would admit it so casually. It's so business as usual, a normal mistake a president would make, huh? Gee, seems like similar events have happened before for learning experiences.
This is something Sanders has mentioned frequently while criticizing Clinton's foreign policy acumen. That sure it's easy to go around toppling dictators, but what happens afterward? The next day? Sounds like Obama opened things up for him for more criticism, and has validated his (Sanders') remarks.
(I also agree, Pastor, the mistake was destroying Libya in the first place.)
This is all to aid HRC
He's taking the bullet for a war that, yes, he signed off on, but which she and her cabal demanded.
It's deflection and distraction. Clinton is calling in her favors with Obama now rather than waiting for the general. Same reason for his "oh those emails weren't really all that top secret" the other day, as well.
I wonder what he's been promised in exchange for throwing his weight around now.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
My tin foil hat
told me long ago that the primary and general election of 2007-8 was a twofer bait and switch disguised as change you can believe in. When he appointed Killary as SoS and appointed every Clintonite he could find to be his WH staff and unveiled his economic team it showed me that Obama was nothing but a talented PR marketing tool for the same as it always was Clinton DLC/Third Way Dem. machine. Ask me he got what he was promised when he was inaugurated.
That was not Obama's worst military blunder.
He is mentioning Libya to deflect from the really stupid blunder that killed so many American soldiers. They say the President is working on the narrative that will define his legacy this year. This is an example of that.
Obama has complete cover for the Libya clusterfuck, so it's just zero-sum kabuki. Libya was the brain child of the three neocon harpies from hell: Hillary Clinton, Samantha Power, and Susan Rice. They screeched at him for months, begging for blood. They finally got him to acquiesce by arranging for our Vassal States in Europe to lead the idiocy via NATO. Now the Vassal States must suck up hundreds of thousands of Libya refugees, who have suffered unspeakable tragedy and hardships. All of this is on Hillary. She's up to her elbows in blood, the psychopathic twit.
His horrific blunder was the Afghanistan Surge. The fallout from that moronic move is still reverberating through the military and and the CIA. Bunch of dead US soldiers and tens of thousands new terrorists bent on payback. What a sucker. I remember his cringe-worthy speech announcing it a West Point. I'm sure it keeps him up and night, being bamboozled like that.
Putin saved his ass from would have been his most colossal blunder, by far: His red line in Syria. Global intelligence and the UN were well aware that the false-flag, chemical weapon mini-bomb was the handiwork of Turkey. Russia removed all such weapons at Syria's request and neutralized America's momentary bloodlust — even though Netenyahu went to the UN and drew a big cartoon of an Acme bomb for the General Assembly.
After that, Obama finally backed away from the project to turn the Middle East into Greater Israel. Instead, he made peace with Iran, if they promised to pretend to get rid of the nuclear weapons they didn't have in the first place. Neocon tears flowed.
ditto
(I also agree, Pastor, the mistake was destroying Libya in the first place.)
Not planning? Really?
I've read that Libya was the richest country in Africa, with free education & medical care, when "we" decided to trash it.
But Khadafi was talking to other African countries about a non-dollar currency for oil. No more petro-dollar. Now, the petrodollar isn't threatened by Khadafi any more.
How convenient for TPTB. PNAC recommends knocking down any states that have independent strength. Hmm?
Qaddafi was taken out for multiple reasons
ALL of which are based on profiteering and control by the US. He had oil, a huge cache of gold, and was creating a pan-African coalition and banking system-something that would have interfered with our plans to insert military "lily pads" into every African country that had any resources at all, and then sucking the profits out through corrupt banks. Some good reads:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/16/the-real-reason-the-us-wanted-gad...
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2011/10/gadd-o21.html
did a search Obama Libya
and lots of things have come up in the last 24 hours
1 hour ago on BBC
President Obama: Libya aftermath 'worst mistake' of presidency
and several more links
remember when Hillary criticized Bernie for not being nice to Obama
Well, Obama followed Hillary's lead and this is what it got him
did a search Obama Libya
and lots of things have come up in the last 24 hours
1 hour ago on BBC
President Obama: Libya aftermath 'worst mistake' of presidency
and several more links
remember when Hillary criticized Bernie for not being nice to Obama
Well, Obama followed Hillary's lead and this is what it got him
sorry about the double post & relinked this at dailykos
not figured out how the systems works here
wonder if I will get zapped there for reposting articles from C99%?
I suspect that may get you banned
Conspiring with the enema, and all.
libya could have been any one
just any one country that doesn't have a massive military response to defend itself from an invasion. not russia or china, but nothing is really stopping any us belligerent president from picking on approx 190 other nations on this planet.
us is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. april 4, 1967. mlk. killed with covert gov complicity exactly one year later in tennessee while openly defending american workers' rights in memphis.
Helluva Claim
...then again, I just watched "Black Mass", so I suppose if there's truth in that, there's truth in a lot of things I wouldn't want to believe.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/conspiracy/mlktrial.asp
Bernie is a win-win.
Don't let Obomber off the hook on this, not one bit.
He's the CINC, it was his decision. Clinton is equally culpable, but it was Obama's crime, NOT a mistake. Calling these wars mistakes is like calling premeditated murder a mistake. Obama was hired to do this job, to continue the neocons plan for world domination, to finish the "seven countries in five years" of which Libya was one. To say Clinton convinced Obama to murder hundreds of thousands and displace millions while bombing the shit out of Libya for seven months is not accurate, Libya was/is Obama's war.
And Bernie Sanders was right on board with it.
"In 2011, Bernie co-sponsored S. Res. 85, which urged the UN Security Council to take action to protect civilians in Libya from attack, including the possible imposition of a no-fly zone over Libyan territory."
https://thepeaceresource.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/bernie-sanders-is-old-...
He can talk all he wants about the Iraq war and regime changes and all, but in the end his record speaks for itself. He supported this criminal act which was no different than the criminal act in Iraq committed by Bush and the neocons and continued by Obama and his imperialist staff.
Clandestine. War east of Benghazi
ISIL controls. much of the coastal area east of there.
CIA. is probably operating out of Abeche, Chad.
Probably been going on as a low grade insugentcie for some time.
Senator Obama made a stop there before the presidency.
(Might be slight tinfoilhat but you can google the pic.)
I want a Pony!
You couldn't come up with a better distraction than "Benghazi!!"
Just like the corporate media, talk about anything but the most important issues.
Beware the bullshit factories.
A lot of people make this mistake
of completely dismissing the issue of Benghazi because of the ridiculous way it's been handled by the Republicans. There's plenty to investigate about Benghazi but none of them asked questions about the rat line of weapons and jihadis trafficked between Libya and Syria, the purpose of the annex and consulate in Benghazi, the al Qaeda affiliated militias that we were partnering with, etc.
the logic of Benghazi and emails, though...
hypothesis: Democrats and Republicans work together for the 1%
starting from that, it would fit that the Republicans go after Hills with some stuff that's true, some that's not all that important, some that's crazy. This allows all criticism of her to be lumped in with the crazy (or irrelevant). And it allows criticism to be called "right wing" since some of it comes from there. All the Hill supporters have to do is add "-ghazi!" to the end of anything, as in "Kissinger-ghazi!!"
I tend to think that half of what the Repubs yell about is stuff they know is preposterous, to provide cover for her.
I think that is obvious.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
I believe it was Agence France-Press
who had people on the ground with the inside story on Benghazi in the aftermath. It was the story that the MSM was not reporting. It was a complicated affair involving betrayal and incompetence way beyond "emails."
You are right there was nothing trivial about it.
To thine own self be true.
Have you a site cite sight at hand?
I am a tad lazy.
This week's Economist has a short, but interesting article
On Libya. They nicely skirt the takedown of His Royal President for life, but also explain in good detail the existing schisms, sects, and the possibility of more chaos. As they wrote, 2014 was even worse than 2013.