‘Libya at core of US, UK strategy to destabilize region’
The US and UK support a disputed Libyan unity government deal to get a legal fig leaf for the coming occupations, says Dan Glazebrook, independent political analyst, adding that Libya has been the core of the destabilization strategy employed by them in the region.
Some 20 US special forces troops, equipped with advanced weaponry, had to leave Wattiya airbase in western Libya soon after their arrival Monday after a local militia group asked them to go because they had no permission to be at the site, reports say.
RT: According to reports, these elite troops were sent back by the militiamen. This seems to be a bit embarrassing – not a very well planned mission, which might cause a waste of money. What went wrong there, do you think?
Dan Glazebrook: The issue is that there is no functioning Libyan government or Libyan state or the Libyan army. There was, of course, the functioning Libyan army, whose job was to defend Libyan sovereignty but that was [annihilated] by NATO in 2011. What you’ve had since is that all the various different sectarian militias and death squads that collaborated with NATO in 2011 have been basically put on the government payroll, given literally T-shirts to say they are part of the Libyan army. But there is no unity within that structure. All the different militias have their own interests, local power bases and their own agenda.
RT: But when you’re sending a group of troops to another country it normally involves a lot of very detailed planning. How could it happen that the US troops arrived at the airport and then were sent back packing again?
DG: You’d have to ask them, I suppose. This won’t be the end of US Special Forces. Britain is also sending a thousand troops over to Libya. And it is interesting - in the last few days we heard of an announcement of a unity government. Cameron has said he will not send troops until there’s such a unity government. It is important to recognize that it won’t be a unity government in a sense of a functioning government that is able to actually govern the country. That is not going to happen. We know that the deal that was signed between the two main groups of warring factions in Libya was obviously signed by negotiators but was actually immediately rejected by the heads of both the parliaments within Libya, both the rival fighting parliaments. And that’s even before we look into all of the various groups that were not even part of the negotiations. But, if there is a unity government on paper, the whole point for Britain and the US trying to support a unity government is to get a legal fig leaf for the coming occupations. This won’t be the last of western Special Forces in Libya, mark my words.
RT: What would be the purpose of these US troops in Libya?
DG: What were special forces doing in 2012 when [US] Ambassador Christopher Stevens was lynched – they were organizing a special secret CIA facility to export terrorism across the region and specifically to Syria. This all came out in the open in the US Senate hearings, very clear that’s exactly what was going on - a ratline of weapons and fighters to export terrorism from Libya, which has become a hub of terrorism and has been the core of destabilization strategy employed by the US and Britain in the region…That’s what they were doing in 2011, that’s what they were doing in 2012. I suspect that’s what they are doing today as well.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
