The reasons for Barack Obama’s intervention in Libya has never been really clear- or honest. The most commonly offered explanation given for bombing Libya has been the prevention of a humanitarian disaster. Sunday morning, Obama’s Abbott and Costello foreign policy team said that Libya was a direct threat to US national interest and at the same time that it was not. Of course, that does not explain why we interfere in Libya but not in other regions in which human rights are being oppressed- like North Korea, Iran or China.
Or Syria.
In 2010 Barack Obama renewed sanctions on Syria, calling Syria an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” At that time Obama had little good to say about Syria.
But he said that Syria’s “continuing support for terrorist organisations and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and missile programmes, continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States”.
In the wake of those comments, Hillary Clinton declared that the US would not intervene in Syria even though more than 60 “protesters” were killed in a week of violence. In her statement excluding Syria from intervention Clinton went so far as to call Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad a “reformer.”
So why are we in Libya but not Syria?
First, let’s have a look at the countries in Sarkozy’s coalition (This really is Sarkozy’s coalition. Obama was very late to the game but fully expect Obama to take credit for anything that comes out well).
COALITION COUNTRIES – LIBYA 2011
United States
France
United Kingdom
Italy
Canada
Belgium
Denmark
Norway
Qatar
Spain
Greece
Germany
Poland
Jordan
Morocco
United Arab Emirate
Now let’s look at a diagram. It is a diagram of where Libyan oil goes.
You might notice that the major consumers of Libyan oil are Italy, France, China, Germany and Spain.
Libya has the greatest oil reserves in Africa.
As of 2008 the US was receiving over 100,000 barrels of oil per day from Libya.
Several US oil companies have interests in Libya and so does Halliburton.
Note: A few weeks before Obama began bombing Libya, the US State Department allowed Moammar Gaddafi’s son to visit the US, spending a few weeks in the US, touring ports and military facilities.
Let’s look at another diagram. This one depicts the destinations of Libyan refugees.
Refugees from Libya are flooding into the neighboring countries (Primarily Egypt and Tunisia) and Italy. More ominously, it is thought that between 750,000 and 2 million Libyans could flood into Europe.
He (Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini) also warned of the potential danger of a power vacuum leading to the formation of an Islamic state in the east of the country. Mr Frattini predicted that the collapse of the regime would lead to the “self proclamation of the so-called Islamic emirate of Benghazi”.
Some of us believe that this is already a fait accompli even if the country does not split.
These are the real reasons we are bombing Libya- the flow of oil and the Muslim exodus. One could understand coming to the aid of Italy and France and prevent a huge Muslim flood into Europe. One could understand our allies seeking to maintain the flow of oil. But that’s not what the President stipulated as the reasons for our involvement and it once again shows why you’re an idiot to believe anything Barack Obama says.
Right now we are not protecting “civilians.” We are engaged as the air cover for the rebel war against Gaddafi. The goal is to remove Gaddafi from power. Do not for one moment think it is anything else. And it could all end very badly.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.