The Ongoing Libyan Catastrophe

It’s worth remembering that before Hillary Clinton convinced Barack Obama to support bombing the hell out of Libya, Libya had the highest standard of living in Africa.

Today, it has open air slave markets and is fought over by various Jihadist groups. The so-called central government is a punching bag.

Even if you thought Libya was a bad place, run by a bad man (and he was no saint), the truth is that you never, ever, want the US to intervene in any country unless you want it to become a failed state wasteland. This isn’t your great-grandfather’s US; it isn’t the US which rebuilt Germany and Japan. This is late-Imperial-decline-America, incapable of nation building even at home, let alone in other countries.

Libya was the primary reason Clinton was unqualified to be President. After being for the Iraq war, Libya proved she had learned nothing; that she would make the same mistake again.

Libya has also contributed to destabilizing the EU, as it has contributed to the refugee crisis. Whatever problems the US has with the EU, and vice-versa, straight realpolitik suggest that you don’t undermine you second most important ally in the world (right after Japan) when a new hegemonic power (China) is rising to challenge your dominance.

But ultimately it’s about the people. About the harm. About the slavery, death, disease, rapes, and torture that the “intervention” led to. The attack was, ultimately, monstrous, judged solely on its results. Results which, after Iraq and Afghanistan, were easily predictable.

American liberals have this weird idea that they’re still the good guys, and that the US is a force for good in the world. It isn’t. The best thing for the world, and the US (and Americans), right now, would be for the US to remove its troops from around the world, stop attacking other nations (including drone bombing them) and mind its own business. There’s plenty of problems at home the US should fix first, before it ever goes abroad looking for monsters.

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