Mum over events in Libya’s ‘dirty war’
THE Libyan adventure did not “creep” towards regime change; it had been prepared by US military strategists using satellite, aerial and ground-based surveillance, plus advice from experts in diverse fields. Oil surely had something to do with it.
Western intervention implemented a no-fly zone, not “action to protect civilians” – the most cruel spin of all. Subsequently, even Libya’s civil airliners parked on the ground were destroyed. Reportage of the war focused on Libyan regime brutality – authorised rapes, imported mercenaries, snipers killing civilians, mass executions of captive rebels, and revelations of the 1996 Abu Salim prison massacre.
After five years, these anecdotes have either been proved false or failed to mature into a proper historical account.
We have no overall picture of the strategic progress of the rebellion on the ground – nor of the extent of western paramilitary support within Libya.
The number of civilian fatalities directly attributable to Nato and US action remains an apparent secret.
Such murkiness suggests a “dirty war” – one whose victory could be bought with millions of dollars in cash paid to some useful Libyan rebels.
In the UK, the buck stopped with David Cameron.
How odd that he resigned when the Brexit vote went against him, but expressed no shame about his part in Libya’s destruction. S. SOOFIE Durban