NATO’s bombing of Libya: Ten years on

Mustafa Kamel

It is ten years now since NATO bombed Libya with authorization from the United Nations Security Council to stop attacks by the army of the late Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi against civilians.

However, this intervention had been catastrophic, according to Jacobin, a leading site of the American left.

The same intervention has opened the door for an endless cycle of violence and civil war in Libya, the site said.

The rise in violence in Libya prompted the United Nations to authorize the international community to interfere in Libya.

This emboldened Gaddafi’s opponents. The United Kingdom and France launched a series of airstrikes against Gaddafi’s army. NATO then took the mission of leading the military action against the late Libyan leader on 31 March 2011.

Jacobin said the British and French interference in Libya was not based on correct intelligence information.

It said the interference that ostensibly aimed to protect civilians reverted to an opportunistic desire to change the regime in Libya.

It added that the same interference resulted in political and economic collapse in Libya, something that opened the door for unending fighting between different militias and humanitarian crises.

It also opened the door for an exodus into Europe by illegal immigrants and a wide range of human rights violations as well as a proliferation of arms across Libya, Jacobin said.