The U.S.-led regime change in Libya failed to create a new regime, but did succeed in killing thousands of people and destroying the economy and infrastructure of Africa’s most prosperous society. “Imperialism’s Libya debacle ignited chaos throughout the region that it can no longer control.” Obama’s “mistake” was his failure to harness the events he set in motion. “Obama wasn’t regretful because it happened, but because he got caught.”
“Libya was handed over to a consortium of terrorists and pro-imperialist reactionaries who have since gutted the economy.”
To this day, most people in the US know little about Washington’s key role in the destabilization of Libya. When the US-NATO alliance launched a combined assault of aerial strikes and jihadists on Libya beginning in March 2011, the corporate media was too busy demonizing Muammar Gaddafi and the sovereign Libyan government to give accurate coverage of the situation. Real coverage would have exposed how imperialism deposed of Gaddafi and destroyed over four decades of independent, socialist development. Instead, Washington and its media arm shifted focus on the 2012 Benghazi attack and Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. The true character of the invasion of Libya was effectively suppressed.