The Military War Against Libya 2011

Uh, Inverted Perhaps — The Rationale, And Means

Kevin A. Sensenig | August 17, 2014

Libya

Qaddafi

In the United States we have, for the militia (via Congress: “The Congress shall have Power To provide for calling forth the Militia to…” (Article 1 Section 8)) —

execute the law

suppress insurrections

repel invasions

[It’s not only the militia, “to repel invasions”, I’d suppose, but can be called forth to do so…]

Qaddafi tried to do this with the military (items 2, 3: suppress insurrections, repel invasions).

He did not tell his people that he was going to show them “no mercy” — he told that to the armed rebels, and even gave them an out (to lay down their weapons for amnesty). This takes away the first rationale.

Obama had claimed that “But I firmly believe that when innocent people are being brutalized; when someone like Qaddafi threatens a bloodbath that could destabilize an entire region; and when the international community is prepared to come together to save many thousands of lives—then it’s in our national interest to act. And it’s our responsibility. This is one of those times.” See the March 26, 2011 Weekly Address: President Obama Says the Mission in Libya is Succeeding | The White House.pdf.

Again, Qaddafi did not tell his people that he was going to show them “no mercy” — he told that to the armed rebels, and even gave them an out (to lay down their weapons for amnesty). See the cbsnews.com article here, consistent with the AP article I read on Fox News in 2011, at the time of the war.

Again, if this reporting is accurate, that indicates that it takes away the first rationale; and was overlooked as a challenge to the war at the time.

Then the question is, “governments are”. (The Declaration Of Independence.) That is, “governments are set up to do such and such…” and was Qaddafi’s government doing such and such, or close to it.

The question also might be, was there material to work with, in what Qaddafi was doing, in his country, from our standpoint? What was material, in day to day life? What was material in his government structure; and input from or direction to the people?

Qaddafi was not going to invade Egypt.

Qaddafi was not going to invade Tunisia.

Qaddafi was not going to invade Sudan.

Qaddafi was not going to invade Algeria.

Qaddafi was not going to "create regional instability” [ Obama said that, to effect ]. In fact, it seems (2014) to be the opposite.

This takes away his second rationale.

U.S. evacuates embassy in Libya amid clashes - CBS News (online), 2014.

-Sec State Kerry: “freewheeling militia violence”. Is this true, and why?
-“we will continue to build out of the elections...so many people died and gave so much effort to the birth of the new Libya, and we’re very very hopeful that those people will recognize that the current course of violence will only bring chaos and possibly longer term difficulties.”
-See below, an article on what may have been the very real actual Libya vote during Qaddafi.

Sidestep Congress? On War?

We took out Libya’s air defense systems.

We bombed them 3,000 or 300 or more times.

That seems to me to be war.

I suggest that President Obama needed by law to have obtained a Declaration Of War from Congress, on Libya.

No battle needed to be fought (to defend the free state, the United States).

No war needed to be initiated on our behalf.

There was ample time to declare war on Libya, if Congress had wanted it.

The United Nations does not substitute for the U.S. Constitution. Rather, our activity within the United Nations should be sourced from a dimension read of the Constitution, and its effect.

The UN Security Council Vote

5 nations abstained from the UN vote authorizing military intervention in Libya:

Germany

Russia

Brazil

China

India

Perhaps our (US) generals should have called generals in these nations to ascertain 1) security to the US and each of these nations; 2) the threat to regional stability.

Qaddafi’s Libya

While President Obama talked about “doctors and lawyers” being behind (initially) the revolution then war in Libya, what is this?

Gaddafi’s Libya was Africa’s Most Prosperous Democracy

By Garikai Chengu

A Fellow of Harvard University's Du Bois Institute for African Research

If the above article is at all true, I think the President Barack UN Obama can be uh taken to a legal threshold — and the law would seem to apply, that he needed a War Powers declaration from Congress.

The Republicans may not have approved such, and appealed to enough Democrats to defeat it in both chambers, not just the House Of Representatives.

How We Tiled US Policy/Nations Away From Stability

For some comments on this, see my essay here.

Obama boxed himself (somehow) into a war with Libya.

Obama seems to have boxed himself clearly out of protection of the Iraqi people, or the Iraqi borders in 2010/2011.

Qaddafi had clearly done everything reasonable with border security against regional invasion — but not with any goal to invade anyone.

He had also apparently walked away from nuclear arms in the 2000s, working with Sec State Condi Rice.

It is my understanding that he also sold us oil — that is, he was working with the international markets, and we bought oil from Libya.

If you look at gas prices during that time and since, there was a spike, and a reset to a higher price (now versus 2010).

And lower prices after several years. -- 2020 August 22.

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