Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department will go down as one of the most obstructive, destructive, and corrupt legacies in American history. With the blood of Ambassador Chris Stevens on her hands and Benghazi-gate on the back-burner, Hillary unapologetically waltzes from one campaign stop to another, without the slightest hint of misgiving or regret.
Indeed, it was at Hillary’s direction that the Obama administration agreed to bomb Libya in 2011, ousting dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Unfortunately, the Regressive Left is far better at moral absolutes like, “War is bad,” “peace is good,” and “dictators are evil,” than actual policy analysis and tactical nuances. While Gaddafi was in fact a madman, his tyrannical rule assured some semblance of security and stability.
The General’s loyal military commanders crushed both Islamist and secular dissent without flinching, ensuring that groups like ISIS could not gain a foothold in the country. Although Gadhafi certainly funded terror abroad, his reach was limited and he provided domestic non-chaos in Libya as opposed to the crisis consuming the country now.
When Hillary Clinton decided to go Rambo on Libya, she failed to plan for the rebuilding period and post-development calculus. Instead, she chose to “lead from behind,” assembling American airpower to blow Libya to hell without any prospect of returning it to normalcy.
The plan to drop hellfire missiles over Libya was haphazard and clumsy. Republican members of Congress opposed Obama’s Libya policy, calling it an illegal breach of executive privilege. “The United States does not have a King’s army. President Obama’s unilateral choice to use US military force in Libya is an affront to our constitution,” Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, a House Republican on the Armed Services Committee told The Hill.
Libya soon became a mecca for terrorists across the region to congregate, regroup, and consolidate weapons caches. Without Gaddafi, the state of Libya devolved into a no-man’s land, drawing in foreign fighters and gun smugglers quickly, with many establishing a base of operations in the country.
“Weapons are spreading from Libya at an “alarming rate,” fueling conflicts in Mali, Syria, and elsewhere and boosting the arsenals of extremists and criminals in the region,” Reuters reported in 2013 citing an analysis by the U.N. “Libyan government security forces remain weak and militias, made up of former rebel fighters, hold power on the ground.” The UN report added:
These zones [in Libya] also serve as bases and transit points for non-state armed groups, including terrorist groups and criminal and drug trafficking networks with links to the wider Sahel region.
Some 18 months after the end of the conflict, some of this materiel remains under the control of non-state actors within Libya and has been found in seizures of military materiel being trafficked out of Libya,” according to the report.
Civilians and brigades remain in control of most of the weapons in the country, while the lack of an effective security system remains one of the primary obstacles to securing military materiel and controlling the borders.
Fast-forward to 2015 and Libya is a hub of jihadist activity. The Obama administration has done nothing to curb arms trafficking and terrorist activity in the Libya. The New York Times is now reporting ISIS has established operational command in Libya. It was only a matter of time before the Islamic terrorist group took advantage of the relatively unguarded desert.
With Russian and French air raids decimating strongholds in Raqqa and Mosul, ISIS has naturally readjusted and moved accordingly. “A great exodus of the Islamic State leadership in Syria and Iraq is now establishing itself in Libya,” said Omar Adam, a commander of a formidable militia based in Libya. ISIS has even cemented a command post in the port city of Surt. “Today Surt is an actively managed colony of the central Islamic State, crowded with foreign fighters from around the region, according to residents, local militia leaders and hostages recently released from the city’s main prison.” states the Times.
The disastrous results of our reckless handling of Libya should weigh on the conscience of somebody with a beating pulse. Yet Hillary repeatedly laughs off the deadly mistakes of the past, as the Trump campaign brutally highlighted. The coldness of Clinton has even forced her campaign to launch an operation to “Humanize Hillary,” in an effort to make her appear less cyborg-like. “The attempt to get Hillary to the 100 percent human mark has been a challenge of such extraordinary complexity,” writes the National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke.