Washington Has Launched Yet Another Military Aggression against Libya

The unlearned lesson of Washington’s armed aggression against Libya back in 2011 has come to haunt the US yet again, since the US Air Force are back to bomb this African country again. The assault started on August 1st with the vigorous bombardment of the Libyan port city of Sirte. The new round of US military aggression against Libyan was announced by Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook, who pointed out that the decision to launch the so-called “military operation” was taken by Barack Obama himself.

The beginning of a new US campaign in Libya was confirmed by the rime Minister of the Government of national consensus (GNC), Fayez Mustafa al-Sarraj that is conducting all meetings at the military base near Tripoli. According to Fayez al-Sarra, “Washington carries out the operation at the request of the GNC.”

The air assault on Sirte, American military commanders say, is provoked by the allegations that this city has become a new base for ISIS. In this regard, it is noteworthy that in the recent interview that Barack Obama gave to the Fox News, American President announced that he considers American armed aggression against Libya the biggest mistake that he made during his presidency.

One should not forget the fact that once the Wall Street Journal reported last February that ISIS is taking hold of Sirte, Obama rejected the idea of a new military campaign in Libya that was presented by the Pentagon and rejected the very idea of air strikes against ISIS in this state, as it was reported by The Daily Beast.

Therefore it clear that even though Washington says that the aim of the new armed aggression is the fight against ISIS, everyone understands that this is but a pretext, while the White House aims at supporting certain terrorists groups in their fight against other terrorists, in a bid to spill chaos in the neighboring countries, primarily to Algeria and Egypt.

We shouldn’t forget that once the Libyan government was toppled back in 2011 divided groups were providing their support to various branches of the government, which resulted in the duality of power in Libya. So, we are in the situation when the internationally recognized Parliament – the House of Representatives is being sited in the city of Tobruk. The Parliament is being supported by the troops of the Libyan national army, headed by Lieutenant-General Khalifa Haftar.

The capital of the country – Tripoli is being occupied by the new General National Congress, that is being supported by a coalition of armed groups that is called the Shield of Libya. This coalition is closely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which in many is being labeled as terrorist organization by a number of states. The second-largest city of the country, Benghazi, is being run independently by the so-called Islamic Shura Council.

A number of territories are not being controlled by any official group and those territories are quickly being subjected to ISIS rule, which creates a foothold for the further development of this terrorist group if it is to suffer a crushing defeat in Iraq and Syria.

In the meantime, there’s a long list of contradictions between the government in Tripoli and the officially recognized Therefore, the the Government of national consensus (GNC) that was created in accordance with the accords signed in Morocco on December 17 2015 agreement has not been ratified by the Parliament. Therefore, the GNC cannot be regarded as the legitimate representative of Libya. However, Washington and other Western players are trying to ignore this fact, putting particular emphasis on supporting those people at the head of the GNC. The Tobruk Parliament explains its negative attitude towards the GNC by the fact that this government is acting in accordance with Washington’s demands. This fact has been announced bluntly in the US Senate by the newly appointed commander of Africa Command of the US Armed Force Thomas D. Waldhauser. In addition, according to the statements made by Libyan members of parliament, the GNC consists mainly of terrorists and extremists that have been murdering and torturing civilians and participated in the creation of training camps for militants that were later sent to fight in Syria.

Under these conditions, there can be no discussion of the legal status of the new US armed agrssion against Libya, since this “counter-terrorist operation”, just like the armed intervention of 2011, has been launched at the official request of legitimate authorities of this country and there’s no mandate from the UN Security Council.

When assessing the new US campaign in Libya one must bear in mind the fact that Libyan elites have shown their willingness to combat radical militants. In particular, the head of parliament Aguila Saleh Issa has declared June 18 a total mobilization across Libya, while the regular armed forces so far resisted ISIS pretty successfully. Although it’s true that Libyan troops have been pretty slow at entering the areas dominated by terrorists, like Benghazi and Sirte, out of the fear of the massive civilian casualties that such an operation can bring.

However, the White House prefers to ignore these facts, since the Obama administration has failed miserably in other regions of the world (including in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan), therefore it tries to show at least some positive results before Barack Obama leaves the office.

As for yet another violation of the international law that Washington has just committed, the White House doesn’t want to hear none of it, while being convinced that bombs can subdue the whole world its will, regardless of the growing death toll among the civilian population of various states.