{"id":93723,"date":"2017-06-12T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=93723"},"modified":"2017-06-11T12:46:37","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T11:46:37","slug":"the-us-hand-in-the-libyansyrian-tragedies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/06\/the-us-hand-in-the-libyansyrian-tragedies\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Hand in the Libyan\/Syrian Tragedies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Obama administration\u2019s \u201cregime change\u201d debacles in Libya and Syria are spreading terrorist violence into Europe, but they have inflicted vastly more bloodshed in those two tragic nations.<\/em><\/p>\n

9 Jun 2017 – <\/em>Police investigations and media reports have confirmed that two of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in Western Europe \u2014 the coordinated bombings and shootings in Paris in November 2015<\/a>, which killed 130 people, and the May 2017 bombing of the arena in Manchester<\/a>, England, which killed 23 \u2014 trace back to an Islamic State unit based in Libya known as Katibat al-Battar.<\/p>\n

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at a United Nations Security Council Session on the situation in Syria at the United Nations in New York on Jan. 31, 2012. [State Department Photo]<\/p><\/div>\n

Since those attacks, a number of analysts<\/a>, myself included<\/a>, have characterized them as a form of \u201cblowback\u201d from\u00a0NATO\u2019s disastrous campaign<\/a>\u00a0to depose Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. By turning Libya into an anarchic staging ground for radical Islamist militants, that intervention set in motion the deadly export of terror back into Western Europe.<\/p>\n

But such a Eurocentric critique of NATO\u2019s intervention misses the far greater damage it wreaked on Syria, where nearly half a million people have died and at least 5 million refugees<\/a> have had to flee their country since 2011. U.S., British, and French leaders helped trigger one of the world\u2019s great modern catastrophes through their act of hubris.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, Libya was a leading foe of radical jihadis, not a sanctuary for their international operations. A 2008 State Department memo<\/a> noted that \u201cLibya has been a strong partner in the war against terrorism.\u201d It gave the Gaddafi regime credit for \u201caggressively pursuing operations to disrupt foreign fighter flows,\u201d particularly by veterans of jihadist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n

All that came to an end in 2011, when armed rebels, including disciplined members of al-Qaeda and Islamic State, enlisted NATO\u2019s help to topple Gaddafi\u2019s regime. Western leaders ignored the prescient warnings<\/a> of Gaddafi\u2019s son Seif that \u201cLibya may become the Somalia of North Africa, of the Mediterranean. . . .You will see millions of illegal immigrants. The terror will be next door.\u201d Gaddafi himself similarly predicted<\/a> that once the jihadis \u201ccontrol the Mediterranean . . . then they will attack Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subsequent terrorist attacks in Europe certainly vindicated those warnings, while discrediting the so-called humanitarian case for waging an illegal war in Libya. But the predicted jihadi efforts to \u201ccontrol the Mediterranean\u201d have had far graver repercussions, at least in the case of Syria.<\/p>\n

A recent story<\/a> in the New York Times<\/em> on the genesis of recent terror attacks on France and Britain noted in passing that the Islamic State in Libya, composed of \u201cseasoned veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan,\u201d was \u201camong the first foreign jihadist contingent to arrive in Syria in 2012, as the country\u2019s popular revolt was sliding into a broader civil war and Islamist insurgency.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former British counter-terrorism analyst told the newspaper, \u201csome of the baddest dudes in Al Qaeda were Libyan. When I looked at the Islamic State, the same thing was happening. They were the most hard-core, the most violent \u2014 the ones always willing to go to extremes when others were not. The Libyans represented the elite troops, and clearly ISIS capitalized on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Extremist Violence in Syria<\/strong><\/p>\n

These Libyan jihadists leveraged their numbers, resources, and fanaticism to help escalate Syria\u2019s conflict\u00a0into the tragedy we know today. The mass murder we now take for granted was not inevitable.<\/p>\n

Although Syria\u2019s anti-government protests in the spring of 2011 turned violent almost from the start<\/a>,<\/u> many reformers and government officials strove to prevent an all-out civil war. In August 2011, leaders of Syria\u2019s opposition wisely declared<\/a> that calls to arms were \u201cunacceptable politically, nationally, and ethically. Militarizing the revolution would . . . undermine the gravity of the humanitarian catastrophe involved in a confrontation with the regime. Militarization would put the revolution in an arena where the regime has a distinct advantage and would erode the moral superiority that has characterized the revolution since its beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Largely forgotten today, the Assad regime also took serious steps<\/a> to deescalate the violence, including lifting the country\u2019s state of emergency, disbanding the unpopular National Security Court, appointing a new government, and hosting a national dialogue with protest leaders.<\/p>\n

But on August 18, 2011, the same Western leaders who were bombing Gaddafi announced to the world<\/a> that \u201cthe time has come for President Assad to step aside.\u201d Further energizing Syrian militants, Libyan rebels were just then in the midst of conquering Tripoli with NATO\u2019s help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is an ominous sign for Syria\u2019s President Bashar al-Assad,\u201d reported<\/a> the Wall Street Journal<\/em>. \u201cAlready there are signs Libya is giving inspiration to the rebels trying to oust Mr. Assad. . . . Syrian protesters took to the streets chanting \u2018Gadhafi tonight, Bashar tomorrow.\u2019 . . . The Libyan episode may serve simply to sharpen the conflict in Syria: both spurring on the dissidents and strengthening Mr. Assad\u2019s resolve to hold on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stoking war in Syria was not an unintended consequence of the Libyan campaign, but a conscious part of the longstanding neoconservative ambition to \u201cremake the map of the Middle East\u201d by toppling radical and anti-American regimes. The same Journal<\/em> article described the grandiose aims of some Washington interventionists:<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond Syria, a new dose of energy provided by Libya\u2019s uprising could ripple out to other nations in the region. In particular, U.S. officials hope it will reinvigorate a protest movement that arose inside Iran in 2009 to challenge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u2019s re-election. . . Syria has served for 30 years as Iran\u2019s closest strategic ally in the region. U.S. officials believe the growing challenge to Mr. Assad\u2019s regime could motivate Iran\u2019s democratic forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of motivating Iran\u2019s democrats, of course, the Syrian conflict motivated Iran\u2019s hardliners to send Revolutionary Guard units and Hezbollah proxy forces into the country, further destabilizing the region.<\/p>\n

Following the gruesome murder of Gaddafi in the fall of 2011, Libyan zealots quickly began fueling other terrorist conflicts, ranging from Mali to the Middle East, with arms looted from Gaddafi\u2019s vast stocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weapons proliferation that we saw coming out of the Libyan conflict was of a scale greater than any previous conflict \u2014 probably 10 times more weapons than we saw going on the loose in places like Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan,\u201d observed<\/a> an expert at Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n

A United Nations investigation<\/a> determined that \u201cTransfers of arms and ammunition from Libya were among the first batches of weapons and ammunition to reach the Syrian opposition.\u201d It also stressed that Libyan weapons were arming primarily \u201cextremist elements,\u201d allowing them to gain territory and influence at the expense of more moderate rebel groups.<\/p>\n

Spreading the War<\/strong><\/p>\n

As early as November 2011, Islamist warlords in Libya began offering<\/a> \u201cmoney and weapons to the growing insurgency against Bashar al-Assad,\u201d according to the Daily Telegraph<\/em>. Abdulhakim Belhadj, commander of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an al-Qaeda affiliate, met secretly with Syrian rebel leaders in Turkey to discuss training their troops. (In 2004, he had been the victim<\/a> of a CIA kidnap plot and rendition from Malaysia to Libya.)<\/p>\n

The commander of one armed Libyan gang told the newspaper, \u201cEveryone wants to go (to Syria). We have liberated our country, now we should help others. . . This is Arab unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April 2012, Lebanese authorities confiscated a ship carrying more than 150 tons of arms and ammunition<\/a> originating in Misrata, Libya. A U.N.-authorized panel inspected the weapons and reported<\/a> finding SA-24 and SA-7 surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank guided missiles, and a variety of other light and heavy weapons.<\/p>\n

By that August, according to Time <\/em>magazine<\/a>, \u201chundreds of Libyans\u201d had flocked to Syria to \u201cexport their revolution,\u201d bringing with them weapons, expertise in making bombs, and experience in battlefield tactics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin weeks of the successful conclusion of their revolution, Libyan fighters began trickling into Syria,\u201d the magazine noted. \u201cBut in recent months, that trickle has allegedly become a torrent, as many more have traveled to the mountains straddling Syria and Turkey, where the rebels have established their bases.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Syrian rebel told the newsweekly, \u201cThey have heavier weapons than we do,\u201d including surface-to-air missiles. \u201cThey brought these weapons to Syria, and they are being used on the front lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

A month later, the London Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that a Libyan ship carrying more than 400 tons of weapons bound for Syria, including SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, had docked in Turkey.\u00a0<\/em>Such weapons particularly compounded the suffering of civilians caught up in the war.<\/p>\n

As France\u2019s foreign minister told reporters<\/a> that October, rebel-held anti-aircraft missiles were \u201cforcing (Syrian government) planes to fly extremely high, and so the strikes are less accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to later reporting by journalist Seymour Hersh<\/a>, most such Libyan weapons made their way to Syria via covert routes supervised by the CIA, under a program authorized by the Obama administration in early 2012. Funding and logistics support came from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The CIA supposedly avoided disclosing the program to Congress by classifying it as a liaison operation with a foreign intelligence partner, Britain\u2019s MI6.<\/p>\n

Word of the operation began leaking to the London media<\/a> by December 2012. The CIA was said to be sending in more advisers to help ensure that the Libyan weapons did not reach radical Islamist forces.<\/p>\n

Of course, their efforts came too late; U.S. intelligence officials knew by that time<\/a> that \u201cthe Salafist(s), the Muslim Brotherhood, and (al-Qaeda)\u201d were \u201cthe major forces driving the insurgency.\u201d The influx of new arms simply compounded Syria\u2019s suffering and raised its profile as a dangerous arena of international power competition.<\/p>\n

Libya\u2019s arms and fighters helped transform the Syrian conflict from a nasty struggle into a bloodbath. As Middle East scholar Omar Dahi noted<\/a>, \u201cthe year 2012 was decisive in creating the present catastrophe. There were foreign elements embroiled in Syria before that date . . . but until early 2012 the dynamics of the Syrian conflict were largely internal. . . . Partly in . . . appropriation of weapons pumped in from the outside and partly in anticipation of still greater military assistance, namely from the West, the opposition decided to take up arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision\u2014militarization\u2014had three main effects. First, it dramatically increased the rate of death and destruction throughout the country. . . . By mid-2012, the monthly casualties were almost in excess of the total in the entire first year of the uprising. Militarization gave the Syrian regime a free hand to unleash its full arsenal of indiscriminate weaponry. . . Perhaps most fatefully, the advent of armed rebellion placed much of the opposition\u2019s chances in the hands of those who would fund and arm the fighters. . . . It was then that the jihadi groups were unleashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collateral victims of NATO\u2019s intervention in Libya now include 6 million Libyans attempting to survive in a failed state, millions of people across North Africa afflicted by Islamist terrorism, 20 million Syrians yearning for an end to war, and millions of innocent Europeans who wonder when they might become targets of suicidal terrorists. There is nothing \u201chumanitarian\u201d about wars that unleash such killing and chaos, with no end in sight.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________<\/p>\n

Jonathan Marshall is a regular contributor to <\/em>Consortium News.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 consortiumnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Obama administration\u2019s \u201cregime change\u201d debacles in Libya and Syria are spreading terrorist violence into Europe, but they have inflicted vastly more bloodshed in those two tragic nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east-north-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}