So far we have covered the U.S. involvement in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. I have presented some facts and figures and came up with my conclusions. Of course, you can look at these facts that I have posted, look further into the topic and come to your own conclusions. I hope that you do. The topic of our involvement in the Middle East is and important one that we should overlook as politics as usual. In today's Gripe, we will take a look at Libya and our role in the ousting and death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Our role was not as prominent in Libya, but the U.S. was a part of a NATO force that helped Libyan rebels overthrow the long time tyrant. Something that most of the world had wanted for many years. The Libyan Revolution began on February 15th, 2011 as a protest march in the city of Benghazi. During the march, Libyan security forces fired on the crowd which resulted in several protesters dying. This simple protest then escalated into a full rebellion which spread across the country. After several months of civil war, rebel forces overtook the Gadhafi government and established the National Transitional Council which was recognized by the United Nations as the official governing body of Libya on September 16th, 2011. On October 20th, rebel forces along with outside help from NATO captured and killed ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi. He was found hiding in a drainage ditch outside the town of Sirte. Needless to say, he never made it to trial because the people pummeled him to death in the back of a pickup truck.
As I mentioned above, the U.S. involvement in the Libyan revolution was more behind the scenes than right up front. However, we did play a major role along with 15 other countries which made up NATO forces. However, the U.S. has wanted Gadhafi ousted for a long time because of his unpredictability in conjunction with Libya's vast supply of oil. With the rebels struggling early in the rebellion, NATO took it's place and provided weapons, intelligence and training for the rebels. With this help, they were able to overtake the Libyan forces and depose the hated tyrant. During this revolution, the U.S. spent close to $1.1 billion dollars but barley left a footprint in the sand. John Barry of The Daily Beast reported,
"But behind the scenes, the U.S. military played an indispensable role in
the Libya campaign, deploying far more forces than the administration
chose to advertise. And at NATO headquarters outside Brussels, the U.S.
was intimately involved in all decisions about how the Libyan rebels
should be supported as they rolled up control of cities and oil
refineries and marched toward the capital, Tripoli." "The Libya campaign was a unique international effort: 15 European
nations working with the U.S. and three Arab nations. The air offensive
was launched from 29 airbases in six European countries. But only six
European nations joined with the U.S. and Canada to fly strikes against
Gaddafi’s forces. The scale of the unpublicized U.S. role affirms hawks’
arguments: a divided NATO simply couldn’t have waged the war it did
without extensive American help. What the hawks underestimated was the
U.S. ability to operate without publicity—in military lingo, beneath the
radar."
The U.S. presence was so quiet, not many people knew that we sent a dozen warships including a sub (USS Florida)
. We launched 100 Cruise Missiles, we provided 30 to 40 air tankers to refuel European jet fighters and when the NATO forces ran low on precision attack munitions, the U.S. resupplied them. We also supplied intelligence information gathered by drones which flew over Libya constantly. U.S. AWACS aircraft, high over the
Mediterranean, handled much of the battle-management task, acting as
air-traffic controllers on most of the strike missions. Again, the
Europeans have AWACS, but not enough crews to handle an all-hours
campaign lasting months.
Eavesdropping by U.S. intelligence, some by aircraft, some by a
listening post quietly established just outside Libya gave NATO
unparalleled knowledge of what Gaddafi’s military planned. All this was crucial in supporting the European effort. But U.S.
involvement went way beyond that. In all, the U.S. had flown by late
August more than 5,300 missions, by Pentagon count. More than 1,200 of
these were strike sorties against Libyan targets.
I have spent a ton of time on Libya because this was a revolutionary war which on the surface seemed to lack a huge U.S. presence. However, that could not be further from the truth. We had a huge role in the overthrow of Gadhafi. So far the verdict is not out yet as to whether we helped to destabilize another Middle Eastern nation. However, on September 11th, terrorists attacked the U.S. embassy in Benghazi killing Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and several other Americans. It appears that many armed militant groups have taken over parts of Libya. However, on a very positive note, Libyan people stormed an Ansar al-Shariah camp driving them out of Benghazi. This is the militant al-Qaida inspired group that some allege played a role in the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Embassy.
"In a dramatic sign of Libya's fragility, the crowd swept through the
base and went on to attack a pro-government militia, believing them to
be Islamists, triggering an armed response in which at least 11 people
were killed and more than 60 wounded, according to Reuters." The verdict is still out on Libya, however it seems that our involvement in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have destabilized these countries which has allowed militant groups to gain footholds. One thing is for sure, the tyrannical dictators that we helped depose kept these nations under lock and key. If you got out of line, off came your head. Is it the right thing, the humane thing, NO! However, these people do not know any better. They have been under this type of rule since the dawn of mankind. Democracy to them is a ticket to go APE! I think It is time to get the hell out of there and let these neanderthals alone. The only problem I see with this is they control the oil. I guess it's all about the oil isn't it.
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