Ambassador Stevens and 3 other Americans were killed when gunmen
attacked the fortified U.S.
consulate in Benghazi .
Now everyone knows Benghazi
was the main city of the Libyan rebels that toppled Muammar Gaddafi last year.
Backed by Western air-forces, the rebels took the Libyan capital of Tripoli and killed Muammar
Gaddafi.
Right now the attackers are blamed as part of a mob. I don’t
believe it for a second.
The U.S.
consulate was attacked by men using guns, mortars and grenades. Not that
unusual in Libya
right now, but the attackers had a plan to ambush rescuers as they tried to
save survivors in the consulate. Also it came on the 11th anniversary of 9/11.
I am not a man that cares much about coincidences.
The main problem is that America only itself to blame for
this mess. The whole time the Libyan uprising was in effect, America , UK ,
France and their allies in
NATO were warned by Russia
and China (mostly Russia ) that extremists will use the uprising to
gain power in Libya .
Russian and Chinese warnings were ignored (much like what’s happening now in Syria ) and now
the world is paying the price.
Also things are not going to get better in the short term. America is now moving their people from Benghazi to Tripoli but this
is a useless move as they might be in even more danger in Tripoli . Tripoli
was the powerbase of Gaddafi, the man America helped ousted! His
supporters are not going to go to bat for Americans.
In short, the Russian were right. Libyan extremists have
used the Libyan uprising to gain power in the country and America is now almost without friends in Libya .
3 comments:
Personally, I'm glad the US intervened in Benghazi, the way it did. Its easy to forget the circumstance that led to the decision. Here's a detailed publication that just came out today : http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/10/michael-lewis-profile-barack-obama. From the beginning, this was done with "no political upside", only downside. Solely to avoid thousands being slaughtered. To me, this is what makes the US a loved superpower (unlike say USSR and China). They stand for something and to "practical" people like us sometimes, it seems stupid. I also think whether or not the US intervened, the lid of any couldron pot cannot forever be held together by dictator, whether it be Libya or Egypt. Its a matter of time before things boil over. On hindsight, it was extremely unwise for the US to not better protect their embassies, especially given 9/11 anniversary.
1Forgot to add : page 6 of the URL link above ...
The problem is that America want to have their cake and eat it as well. The moment their air force intervened in Benghazi, Libya became their problem. As Colin Powell once said, “You broke it, it’s yours.” America helped the Libyan rebels toppled Muammar Gaddafi but after that refused to get involved in the messy, dirty job of forming a government to replace him! That’s the main reason how Ambassador Stevens got killed.
Also from everything I read so far, the embassy in Benghazi was very well protected and it took an attack involving guns, mortars and grenades to break in. I do think it’s fair to fault the security at the embassy. No one could reasonably expect 2 armed assaults on a foreign embassy.
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