From the safety of Europe, Mr. Zeidan conceded what was obvious all along: Libya’s post-Gaddafi government has no army and no way of establishing its authority over the hundreds of militias that sprang up in the vacuum that followed the revolution. Libya has fragmented into fiefdoms, its oil industry is virtually paralyzed, massive traffic in illegal weapons is supplying militants around the region and extremist groups such as Ansar al-Sharia, which participated in the Sept. 11, 2012, assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, are unchecked.
The Obama administration and its NATO allies bear responsibility for this mess because, having intervened to help rebels overthrow Gaddafi, they then swiftly exited without making a serious effort to help Libyans establish security and build a new political order. Congress might usefully probe why the administration allowed a country in which it initiated military operations to slide into chaos.
Wait for the missing manpad launchers to be deployed. Sept 11 maybe?
In order words it Iraq 2003 redux. The One’s intervention policy is no better than George Bush’; worse if you count Ambassador Stephens and 3 others being killed in the aftermat of the Libya intervention.
Francois
Yeah well, not to worry…..manpad SAMs have a rather brief shelf-life…..they may fire/launch but the delicate guidance thingy’s not so much….
We call ’em misguided missiles and flying telephone poles.
Thermal guidance don’t tolerate much rough handling and is fussy about storage conditions…heat humidity etc. Even the Russian Strellas……
Libya descends back into the tribalism from which it came. The main export used to be oil but also has a solid stream of young soldiers fighting for radical Islam.
Canada sent it’s air force to kill Gaddafi, bailing out the Euros once again, and had no follow up plan to ensure peace and good government. Even if the only objective was to continue the flow of oil to Italy then results have to be measured in failure.
With this glowing example how can one think that interference in Ukraine would garner any other result. The Euros are not prepared to use military forces in the Ukraine. Many EU members are not even prepared to support sanctions that the EU have proposed. As this situation evolves the standard plea for USA and Canada to spend money and men grows. IMO not a chance. Canada should spend her capital and manpower preparing for the inevitable conflict with Russia in our north. Do we seriously think the Euros will help us in that conflict?
Trust the WaPo to ignore the most important fact.
“…there are no supporting facts.”
There’s never been an inquiry before with subpoena power to extract the evidence. Now there is. This is the WaPo pretending to hold the administration to account by deflecting responsibility to a host of unnamed administration officials and NATO allies.
They’re still covering Obama’s a$$.
Absolutely right, CT. The same vacuous individual is still in the White House, surrounded by the same vapid policy whores. No matter how hard you try, you can’t get jello to resemble or function as a two-by-four.
Ah yes, one of my two thoughts. The other being that they have not stepped up to the plate on Benghazi, so now they don’t want to admit to their failure on that account. But at least there is some turn against the Won.
“Congress might usefully probe why the administration allowed a country in which it initiated military operations to slide into chaos.”
Hummmm. Sorta like Benghazi?
“bear responsibility for this mess”
No. Libya is a mess because Libyans are a mess.
Like most of BO’s interactions with the real world the result is failure.
Any idiot can change things but the result is worse. Making things better
is hard and occasionally impossible. Iraq and Afghanistan show that
with the modern limits to our intervention no amount of time, money and
body bags can improve these third world h*ll holes.
BO’s failure is thinking HIS result would be better than Bush’s.
“not to worry…..manpad SAMs have a rather brief shelf-life”
The Honeywell battery in the FIM-92 has a four or five year life anyways. Expect the same for the SA-7 Strela (arrow).
Gee, I wonder who put some of those weapons on the ground in Libya, Obama?
Wow…..you make the average Taliban look like a genius.
Yep that’s why they will likely fire/launch….DUH….
The guidance failures of factory fresh increase exponentially with age, rough handling and poor storage.
Like most SAMs/AAMs launching without a guidance lock launch is pointless.
The weak point of the Brit Rapier system is it’s rounds…..the lads are trained to handle them like they are uncrated eggs/IEDs/nitroglycerine.
The Rapier firing units the Brits landed at San Carlos Bay were useless…..excuses were made about time needed to calibrate but the reality was that the ride in on the landing barges wuz jus’ too rough.
This why the remnant US Stingers, have been so obviously absent from the Taliban arsenal…..If they had ’em, if they still worked, they wouldn’t be shooting RPGs at choppers…..DUH.
And why all serious operators still heavily invest/rely in/on light/medium tube AAA.
“Yep that’s why they will likely fire/launch….DUH….”
Seems like you did not understand me. The Strelas would not launch.
As for the FIM-92s, as i stated the battery has a life of 4-5 years. Surely missiles supplied in 1988 would be kaput due to dead batteries.
You are right about the guidance mechanism being sensitive to environmental factors.
Egypt has an army. It’s close by and perfectly willing to use the effective methods which will deal with terrorist brigands.
Go to it.
Not our problem.