Libya: Another Lost NATO War - by Stephen Lendman
NATO's sole new millennium accomplishment consists of endless unwinnable wars. Coalition partners eventually tire and pull out.
America may end up isolated against raging street anger to end imperial wars and address vital neglected homeland needs. It's already happening.
The battle for Iraq continues. Afghanistan's war was lost years ago. Libya's also though political Washington, coalition partners, media scoundrels, and NATO won't admit it.
At its October 24 press briefing, NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said:
....(W)e all have seen the celebrations in Benghazi and across Libya as the National Transitional Council declared the full liberation of Libya. A momentous day for Libyans and for the whole region."
Fact check
Fighting rages in Benghazi, Bani Walid, Sirte, Tripoli and other cities across Libya. Jamahiriya loyalists control most territory though portions shift back and forth. Terror bombings continue daily.
Tribal leaders swear revenge for Gaddafi's assassination. Lungescu's rhetoric belies the spirit of millions of Libyans to resist until free. Alleged celebrations were staged. Official accounts of conditions are surreal, bearing no relation to reality.
Major media scoundrels regurgitate official lies. On October 23, New York Times writers Adam Nossiter and Kareem Fahim headlined, "Revolution Won, Top Libyan Official Vows a New and More Pious State," saying:
TNC chairman Mustafa Abdel-Jalil "declared to thousands of revelers in a sunlit square (in Benghazi) on Sunday that Libya's revolution had ended, setting the country on the path to elections, and he vowed that the new government would be based on Islamic tenets."
Fact check
NATO waged lawless imperial aggression against a nonbelligerent country. Daily terror bombings massacred tens of thousands. Rebel rat assassins committed shocking atrocities. Libya's revolutionary struggle just began and won't end until victorious.
Gaddafi's murder investigation will be whitewashed. Killers don't judge their own innocence or guilt. So-called elections will install powerless puppets subservient to Washington, Britain and France. Free Libya won't again exist until loyalists regain it.
On October 24, DEBKAfile discussed Gaddafi's assassination, saying Pentagon sources claim drones pinpointed his Sirte location. US and UK Special Forces surrounded it after days of surveillance. They directed rebel rats to kill him.
Other accounts say his 75-vehicle convoy was attacked leaving Sirte. Some reports said a USAF River Joint RC-135V/W intelligence plane detected him. They alerted French warplanes that struck his vehicle.
Another credited German intelligence. Whatever account's most accurate (if any), US, UK, French, and perhaps other NATO intelligence and Special Forces played a decisive role in locating and killing Gaddafi.
Rebel rats followed orders throughout NATO's aggression. From inception, trained commandos, CIA operatives, and Western intelligence elements led them. Even with air cover, they'd have floundered on their own.
On October 25, Stratfor's George Friedman said NATO's war "involved far more than airstrikes, including special operations forces on the ground targeting for airstrikes, training (rebel) troops, managing logistics, overseeing communications and both planning and at times organizing and leading....insurgents in battle."
In fact, highly trained commandos ran all ground operations. Otherwise it would have floundered and failed. On their own, rebel rats were incompetent.
Friedman added that TNC elements are "in no position to govern Libya by any ideology, let alone through constitutional democracy."
Guerrilla war lies ahead. Libyans are enraged by NATO's intervention. "The universal congratulations on the death of (Gaddafi) are as ominous as all victory celebrations (real or hollow) because they ignore the critical question: Now what?"
DEBKAfile added more, saying:
US and NATO "allies have no compunctions about eradicating (regimes) one way or another....A primary objective of the Arab Spring as promoted by the United States and the Western Alliance is (installing puppet) fundamental(ist) Muslim regimes" under Sharia law.
On October 21, DEBKA also said:
....(M)ilitary sources report mounting indications that a NATO special forces unit....located and captured (Gaddafi in Sirte). They apparently shot him in both legs to prevent his escape and informed (rebel rats) of his whereabouts, knowing they would kill him...."
His death lets "NATO draw a line on its Libyan venture - but not the war." It rages without end.
On October 24, Mathaba.net headlined, "DEBKAfile 'confirms' previous assessment: NATO had surrendered," saying:
"....NATO has totally failed to conquer Libya, and even described its own, eight-month campaign as 'ineffectual' and 'pathetic.' " Its intelligence chiefs said:
"NATO's military intervention in Libya achieved little beyond (Gaddafi's) ouster...." Otherwise, it's been "ineffectual and in many instances pathetic."
DEBKA said its assessment came in late September at CIA Langley, VA headquarters. Its "secondary plan" now begins, involving "the self-destruction, by the Libyan Tribes themselves, of the Libyan Jamahiriya."
NATO hopes tribes will turn on each other. Gaddafi's killing, in fact, united them against coalition partners and rebel rat cutthroats.
In other words, one nation united for liberation. Revenge depends on exorcising NATO and its bandit insurgents. Gaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim earlier said that:
"After this war, we will all embrace each other again, as brothers and sisters." Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said much the same thing. Directing energies against imperial invaders is job one. Years of struggle lie ahead. Unity is vital to prevail. Healing and reconciling differences can follow later.
On October 25, Algeria ISP headlined, "Libya - News from the front with the resistance fighter 'Alae,' " saying:
Al Rai TV said Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Moussa Ibrahim are alive, well and safe, adding:
"Libya('s) army is strong and there are 202 volunteers from Egypt who arrived yesterday. (In) the next two days ," Libya's resistance will report "good news."
Also reported was that Gaddafi's convoy "was surrounded by seven Apache helicopters."
On October 25, Algeria ISP headlined a second report, "Libya - is NATO that killed Muammar Gaddafi," saying:
"NATO bombs were fitted with nerve gases including incapacitating agents producing a cholingeric delirium. (Gaddafi's) convoy was stopped." All vehicle occupants were "asleep. (T)he famous exchange of gun(fire) never took place."
Arriving afterwards, rebel rats murdered vehicle occupants. "Have you not noticed that there is no image of the so-called battle, if not burned cars? No image of the arrest of other occupants, or Moatassem nor attendants?"
Gaddafi toxicology tests "would have revealed traces of fentanyl, carfentanil and halothane, according to" an anonymous doctor at his autopsy.
Official reports and major media scoundrels sanitize information to exclude unspeakable crimes of war and against humanity. They also won't admit that millions of Libyans are committed to wage protracted struggle for freedom.
On October 24, NSNBC said rebel Tripoli commander Abdelhakim Belhadj was targeted for assassination. In addition, "unconfirmed reports (suggest) infighting for positions of power, control over arms, ammunitions and money as well as territory among NATO and TNC allied mercenary and tribal militia" elements. It represents "a growing problem for the TNC leadership."
In contrast, Gaddafi's spirit unites Libyans to resist. Several tribes declared him one of their own. Doing so shows commitment for revenge and liberation from NATO's scourge.
On October 25, NSNBC said Libyan resistance continues. Official spin aims to weaken it and manipulate public opinion about NATO's impressive victory when, in fact, it's losing, not winning except in body count numbers.
Reports about most areas under NATO control are lies. Southern Libya alone equals Spain in size. Jamahiriya loyalists control all of it. In addition, fighting rages from East to West across Libya in coastal cities and others near them.
With plans to end air operations on October 31, NATO urgently wants an "interim government" established, similar to Iraq and Afghanistan, so it can request more imperial support.
After eight bloody months of war, getting it through another Security Council resolution won't work. This time, Russia and/or China won't tolerate it as they've so far stood firm on Syria.
However, as long as Libyans resist, NATO claims a mandate to stay involved, even though its air and ground presence provokes conflict.
NSNBC also said "a legal initiative" is being prepared against NATO for crimes of war and against humanity. It's premature to report details, but obvious ones include:
- assassinating a head of state and his sons;
- withholding medical aid from Gaddafi and Mutassim;
- sodomizing Gaddafi;
- committing genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of Black African guest workers, as well as other atrocities;
- terror bombing civilian targets, including schools, hospitals, civilian neighborhoods, and other sites unrelated to military necessity;
- murdering 53 civilians in Sirte; replicating similar incidents in Benghazi, Tripoli and elsewhere;
- committing genocide against Tawergha tribal members;
- arresting and killing medical staff and others suspected of being pro-Gaddafi;
- using illegal terror weapons, including depleted uranium (DU), thermobaric fuel-air bombs, white phosphorous, nerve and mustard gas; and
- countless other atrocities against civilians thought to be pro-Gaddafi.
Justice demands accountability for political and military officials at the highest levels. Otherwise, they'll replicate similar crimes against other targeted nations.
On October 21, Hugo Chavez condemned Gaddafi's murder, calling him "a fighter and a martyr," adding:
Protracted conflict in Libya continues because "there is a people, a dignity, and the Yankee empire will not be able to dominate. The most lamentable thing is that in (America's) determination to dominate the world, and their European allies, they are setting it alight."
Chavez strongly supported Gaddafi. He called strategic relations with Libya part of constructing a "multi-polar world" with greater "south-south" cooperation between Latin America and Africa.
On Venezuelan public television, analyst Laila Tajeldine said Gaddafi's assassination "sent a clear message to governments who oppose the United States" to worry which one will be targeted next.
Broadcast on FORA TV on October 3, 2007, General Wesley Clark said America underwent a "policy coup" post-9/11. Hard-liners co-opted power with no public debate or acknowledgement.
Ten days after 9/11, he visited Defense Secretary Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. "No one will tell us where or when to bomb", he said. Military commanders explained Iraq would be attacked.
"I walked out of there pretty upset," said Clark. On a second visit, he was told plans were to "destroy the governments in seven countries." Besides Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran would be attacked.
Today add Pakistan, Yemen, Uganda, and dozens of other countries invaded by US Special Forces death squads. As a result, no one anywhere is safe, including US citizens Obama calls fair game if accused of terrorism or complicity to commit it, with or without evidence.
Hardline officials "took control of the policy of the United States." In 1991, as a one-star general, Clark visited Under Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz at the Pentagon after Operation Desert Storm.
He lamented that "we should have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein....But one thing we did learn," he added. "We can use our military anywhere in the Middle East and the Soviets won't stop us."
"And we've got about five or 10 years to clean out those old Soviet client regimes." Among others, he named Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Doing it he said was essential "before the next great superpower comes along to challenge us."
Clark was stunned that top Pentagon officials wanted America's military to "start (unprovoked) wars.". Extremist policy makers then and post-9/11 "wanted to destabilize the Middle East, turn it upside down, (remaking) it under (US) control."
Did Congress debate it? Did presidents explain it? Did America's media report it? "Was there a full-fledged (public discussion) on it? Absolutely not, and there still isn't."
"And that's why we're failing in Iraq." Regional states understand US plans. Americans expect better public policy from officials serving them, not war profiteering designs to control the entire Mediterranean Basin into Central Asia to Russia's borders.
Obama didn't soften Bush's policy. He intensified its war on humanity at home and abroad for unchallenged global dominance. Syria perhaps is next followed by Pakistan and Iran even though ongoing wars are being lost, not won.
NSNBC reports infighting "between 'rebel' factions in Tripoli" and elsewhere. Libya's war "is far from over." Under Gaddafi, Libyans had Africa's highest standard of living. Now they have death, destruction, depravation and misery, conditions they won't tolerate.
For over eight months, they bested NATO's might, delaying or preventing further aggression. Rest assured it's coming because the business of America is war.
It won't change unless sustained public rage no longer tolerates corrupt politicians serving Wall Street, war profiteers, and other corporate favorites at the expense of essential social needs gone begging, en route to being entirely ignored.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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