Ten years ago today, the United States under President Barack Obama intervened in the nascent Libyan civil war. Like Afghanistan and Iraq, Libya reverted to corruption and factionalism when the dictator and his security state were overthrown. Turkish-Egyptian antipathy also fueled the conflict, while Russia supplied mercenaries to the Libyan National Army. Perhaps deeper NATO engagement could have prevented the second Libyan civil war, though the Western appetite to expend serious blood and treasure in Libya was nearly nonexistent. The Libyan war was neither America’s most destructive post-9/11 campaign (that would be Iraq, by a mile) nor its most quixotic (Afghanistan).

Source: Libya Today March 19, 2021 20:15 UTC