Interventionists Evade Responsibility for Their Policy Disasters

Ted Galen CarpenterAs I point out in a newNational Interest Onlinearticle, a multi-sided struggle for power in Libya continues to fester more than eight years after the United States led an air war to help rebels oust longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi.Libya joins Iraq and Syria as a classic example of the failed U.S. regime-change strategy.Fighting between Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar ’s so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) and the even more misnamed Government of National Accord (GNA) has intensified in and around the capital, Tripoli. The LNA boasted on September 11 that its forces had routed troops of the Sarraj militia, a GNA ally, killingsome 200 of them.That claim may be exaggerated, but there is no doubt that the situation has becomeincreasingly violent and chaotic in Tripoli and other portions of Libya, with innocent civilians bearing the brunt of the suffering. Throughout the years of chaos, more than a million Libyans have become refugees, many of them trying to flee across the Mediterranean in fragile, overcrowded boats andperishing in the process.The country has become the plaything not only of rival domestic factionsbut major Middle East powers, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Those regimes are waging a ruthless geopolitical competition, providing arms and in some cases even launching airstrikes on behalf of their respective clients.Given the appalling aftermath of the original U.S.-led intervention, one might hope th...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs