2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHuff Po: Hillary Clinton Continues to Lie About the Failed State She Helped Create
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The Clinton campaign boasts openly about Hillarys robust foreign policy experience. But if her crowning achievement as Secretary of State was to convince Obama to support an intervention which resulted in a terrorist-filled moon crater (Obamas self-described worst mistake), were not so sure she has much to be proud about.
...... But her support - and stubborn defense - for NATOs humanitarian intervention in Libya reveals Clintons real foreign policy record:
From Iraq to Syria, she has been a leading crusader for American military adventures - with disastrous results.
As Jeffrey Sachs recently put it, Hillary Clinton is the lead agent of every war that were in and the kind of wars that have created more and more chaos.
And if you want to fully appreciate Hillary Clintons expertise in spreading misery and chaos, Libya is Exhibit A.
Americans have yet to confront what actually happened in Libya, so we have compiled a brief listicle in order to help illustrate the horribleness that Hillary Clinton supported and continues to defend.
1. Hillary spread baloney rape stories to justify military operations in Libya; and yes, the US played a key role in turning Libya into a mound of rubble
As part of her successful campaign to drag the U.S. into another dumb war, then-Secretary Clinton parroted a rumor that Muammar Gaddafi was giving his bloodthirsty troops bushels of Viagra so that they could rape Libyans all day.
As Amnesty International later documented, Clintons rape stories were entirely fabricated:
Not only have we not met any rape victims, but we have not even met any persons who have met victims. As for the boxes of Viagra that Gaddafi is supposed to have had distributed, they were found intact near tanks that were completely burnt out.
Thanks in part to Clintons fake rape stories, the US played a leading role in the complete and total destruction of Libya. As the Guardian reported back in 2011:
Besides the US - which dominates operations with over 8,000 personnel in the area in several ships and aircraft at the peak of the first weeks of the war - the weight of the conflict has fallen on the British, Italians, French and Canadians.
And again, from the Guardian: Once the [Libya] operation was up and running, it was relatively easy to sustain. Early talk, though, of the US taking a back seat, forcing other Nato countries to contribute more, turned out to be misjudged.
But if you think using fake rape stories to justify a no-fly zone is deceitful and trashy, buckle your seatbelt - were just getting started.
2. The democratic rebels had ties to al-Qaeda; actually, many rebels werent even from Libya
Similar to the disaster currently unfolding in Syria, the United States aligned itself with extremist groups in Libya. Some rebel groups were even composed of jihadists who had previously fought U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
And some of the freedom-loving rebels were not even rebels. After NATO declared victory, Qatar admitted that it sent hundreds of troops to support the Libyan rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafis regime. It was also later revealed that Qatar was arming Islamic militants in Libya - with support (but also concern) from Washington.
A real grassroots rebellion.
3. NATO violated its own mandate in Libya, in a very open and terrible way
Its worth going back and looking at exactly how then-NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen described his organizations mandate in Libya:
What we have decided tonight is to take the responsibility for enforcing the No-Fly Zone with the aim to protect the civilian population, and the mandate doesnt go beyond that, of course we can act in self-defence, but what we will do is to enforce the No-Fly Zone and ensure that we protect the civilian population.
Really? So how does Rasmussen explain this:
Special forces troops from Britain, France, Jordan and Qatar on the ground in Libya have stepped up operations in Tripoli and other cities in recent days to help rebel forces as they conducted their final advance on the Gadhafi regime, a NATO official confirmed to CNN Wednesday.
How does bombing Libya and providing on-the-ground assistance to rebels translate into a no-fly zone with the aim to protect the civilian population? Despite its best efforts to cover-up the results of its no fly zone, NATO was eventually forced to acknowledge that its bombing campaign had killed countless Libyans. So much for protecting the civilian population, right?
Sorry, friends: The Libyan civil war was smorgasbord of lies and deceit, with predictable results.
Undeterred by facts, Clinton continues to peddle stories about how NATO prevented mass genocide in Libya, despite the fact that Amnesty International says there is little or no evidence to support such a claim.
Incredibly, Clinton also insists that Libyans now enjoy a moderate, democratic government, despite the fact that anyone with an internet connection knows that the exact opposite is true (the cohesive political entity known as Libya doesnt exist; Libya todayin spite of the expectations we had at the time of the revolutionits much, much worse; There is no central government, but rather two competing claims on legitimacy).
The reality is that Hillary Clinton played a central role (as revealed by her e-mails) in framing Libya as a humanitarian intervention. She lied. Period.
At least Obama is capable of expressing mild regret for completely destroying Libya - a possible indicator that he is an actual human being, and not a secret space lizard as some might have you believe. Sadly we cant say the same for Hillary Clinton.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riley-waggaman/hillary-clinton-continues_b_9682562.html
840high
(17,196 posts)have the morals Obama does.
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)He saw that Medvedev was unable to handle the US duplicity and the rest is history.
Impedimentus
(898 posts)Geez, some people are always so pessimistic.
FEEL THE BERN - 2016
TheDormouse
(1,168 posts)- Monty Python
MisterP
(23,730 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Which would have cut into profits of the colonials. He had to go.
The worst foreign blundering since Iraq and H was leading. Unfortunately, Obama followed.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)He is a 1%er, or at least a true wannabe if not already.
I don't get the swooning I see here over Obama. He hasn't really done all that much and he will be forgotten in a few years.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)as for why I voted for him --> to change the way things are done in Washington. . . . Total failure.
jpb33
(141 posts)I cannot believe more is not being said about Hillary statement during the debate she wanted troops on the ground in Libya.
She said she wanted to put troops on the ground, but Libyan leaders would not allow it. This should be in the headlines. I don't know why it is not.