Stuart J. Hooper
21st Century Wire
Libya is now the source of a wide array of global problems.
Watch a video of this report here:
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Investigators now believe that it is ‘likely’ that the shooter, who took the lives of at least 39 people at a Tunisian holiday resort, trained in neighbouring Libya.
Yes, that would be the same Libya that was subjected to a ‘humanitarian intervention‘, which, far from saving people, turned a functioning sovereign state into a failed state quite literally overnight. Gaddafi’s regime has been seen as a ‘beacon of light’ compared with the state of affairs in Libya today.
An official source told Reuters that their ‘investigations show Saif Rezgui was in contact with terrorists in Libya and he likely trained in a Libyan camp’.
It is estimated that 3000 Tunisians have left the country to fight and train with extremists in Libya, Iraq and Syria; all of which are now facing huge issues with terrorism.
Failed state Libya. (Photo Credit: ليبي صح)
Libya is also, of course, now widely known the for the attack launched on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, which killed the sitting ambassador John Christopher Stevens. Thousands of fighters from Libya are also known to have moved to Syria, exacerbating that already chaotic situation. Despite this, we still have presidential candidates, like Lindsey Graham, saying they would pursue further open warfare on the region – have they learned nothing? Or, perhaps, they are just receiving support from the military industrial complex.
We must note that nothing excuses the actions of the shooter, he pursued this horrific course of action and should be held personally responsible. Yet, particular environmental and social conditions facilitate and promote certain courses of action that may not have been an option under a different set of such conditions. It is widely understood, although anathema to mention, that the vast majority of terrorist fighters do not join terrorist organisations for ideological reasons. They do so, instead, due to economic reasons.
Absolute chaos. (Photo Credit: ليبي_صح)
Libya’s ‘real GDP dropped by 62 percent, and because of the dependency of the rest of the economy on the oil sector, non-oil real GDP also declined by 52 percent‘, as the oil industry has been thrown into disarray and is the central point of contention for warring factions, since the overthrow of Gaddafi. Imagine for a moment, the chaos such economic devastation would cause in a stable Western nation. Now, imagine the chaos it would cause where political tensions were being manipulated from the outside. Pointing out this fact usually gets you labelled as a ‘terrorism sympathiser’. A better label would be ‘terrorism explainer’, but such is the world we live in.
Are the governments responsible for the destruction of Libya, responsible for, at any level, the subsequent Middle Eastern and North African chaos we are currently experiencing? If so, what should be done about it and who in particular should be held accountable?
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READ MORE ON MIDDLE EASTERN CHAOS: 21st Century Wire Middle East Files
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