Ten years ago today…
1. In 2011, Muammar Gaddafi—the deposed leader of Libya—fled Tripoli after the capital fell to NTC forces. He was soon captured by the rebels, beaten and sodomized with a bayonet, and then shot several times...
1. In 2011, Muammar Gaddafi—the deposed leader of Libya—fled Tripoli after the capital fell to NTC forces. He was soon captured by the rebels, beaten and sodomized with a bayonet, and then shot several times...
2. Gaddafi’s death wasn’t immediate. Later videos would show him with a gunshot wound to the head, slowly dying in a pool of his own blood
The nature of Gaddafi’s death was concealed from the American public, and Western involvement was repeatedly denied until videos surfaced
The nature of Gaddafi’s death was concealed from the American public, and Western involvement was repeatedly denied until videos surfaced
3. The Obama Administration justified US involvement in the toppling of the Gaddafi regime as an effort to “protect Libyan civilians.”
“We had a unique ability to stop the violence.” Obama said.
“We had a unique ability to stop the violence.” Obama said.
4. “We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi…could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.”
Later, Hillary Clinton would coldly revel in Gaddafi’s killing, “We came, we saw, he died.”
Later, Hillary Clinton would coldly revel in Gaddafi’s killing, “We came, we saw, he died.”
5. After Gaddafi’s removal Libya descended into anarchy, and the Administration’s dreams of a liberal democratic Libya would collapse in widespread violence and corruption. One year later rebels belonging to Ansar al-Sharia would attack the US Embassy in Benghazi...
6. The attack claimed the lives of the US Ambassador there and three other Americans—an event riddled with lies and obfuscations typical of the Obama years.
7. Being an election year, the Obama Administration declined to call the event a terrorist attack, describing it instead as a “spontaneous demonstration” provoked by an obscure American filmmaker a world away. The filmmaker would be later sent to prison on "unrelated" charges.
8. Libya today is best described as a failed state, where disparate criminal organizations and insurgent groups operate with utter impunity.
Drugs, weapons, and human chattel—including child sex slaves—are trafficked, bought & sold there—sometimes in open-air slave markets…
Drugs, weapons, and human chattel—including child sex slaves—are trafficked, bought & sold there—sometimes in open-air slave markets…
9. Most Americans have probably forgotten their nation’s role in this humanitarian disaster and the brutal killing of the Libyan dictator.
But the bromides, euphemisms, lies, and Messianic rhetoric from those days should be all too familiar to us now…
But the bromides, euphemisms, lies, and Messianic rhetoric from those days should be all too familiar to us now…
10. US foreign policy is always advertised with in a thick veneer of idealistic, feel-good gobbledygook that could very well be the lyrics to a John Lennon tune.
It's how you make looting, murder, and failure palatable—righteous even.
But blood flows regardless…
It's how you make looting, murder, and failure palatable—righteous even.
But blood flows regardless…
11. War in this degraded stage of empire is often nothing more than a transnational looting scheme, strengthening Leviathan and nourishing its tendrils while investing in decades of violence and disorder…
12. There are some winners but millions of losers—often entire regions of the globe. And while your everyday American is offered a tiny morsel of virtue for supporting the Current Thing—the satisfaction is always fleeting.
After all, there are still slave auctions in Libya.
After all, there are still slave auctions in Libya.
*Eleven years ago today.
Smh
Smh
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