The hits just keep coming. When Barack Obama’s administration, along with Washington’s NATO allies, launched an air war to overthrow Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, expectations were high for the future of that country once Qaddafi was gone. Instead, the result has been an ongoing horror story.
Feuding factions have waged power struggles that created repeated flows of desperate refugees, many of them trying to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean in overloaded, small boats to reach sanctuary in Europe. Other countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia have become parties to the conflict, backing their favored political and military players, thereby adding to the bloodshed and chaos. Today’s Libya is an arena for cynical proxy wars between the clients of those outside powers.
A new report from the United Nations highlights the extent of the tragedy that U.S. leaders helped unleash. The UN’s fact-finding mission identified war crimes and crimes against humanity on the part of multiple parties just since 2016. “Our investigations have established that all parties to the conflicts, including third States, foreign fighters and mercenaries, have violated international humanitarian law, in particular the principles of proportionality and distinction, and some have also committed war crimes,” Mohamed Auajjar, chair of the fact-finding mission, said in a statement. Läs artikel