The Fifty-First Star: American-Libyan Relations Within The War On Terrorism
(Mahmud Turkia / AFP/ Getty Images)
I - A Forgotten Nation Of A Forgotten Continent Of A Not-So-Forgotten War
Since September 11th, 2001, the United States has initiated an international “War On Terror”, with the stated objectives being targeting and eliminating the networks of terrorism responsible for the events of 9/11. Over the previous two decades, 940,000 individuals have perished directly because of the ongoing wars throughout the greater Middle East. Approximately 3.5-3.8 million individuals have died indirectly because of the humanitarian catastrophes that have unfolded since the wars began. Between 38 and 57 million individuals have been displaced, becoming refugees and creating what are considered to be among the worst humanitarian catastrophes that have ever occurred.
Understanding the implications of this crisis requires understanding how these policies have affected individual nations, and the people who experience the human consequences associated with anti-terrorism efforts. Afghanistan and Iraq are two examples which the American public consider to best represent the failures associated with American foreign policy throughout the greater Middle East. However, the American public has tended to ignore-arguably, neglect-the active role the United States maintains throughout Africa, and the consequences that its policies have had on the populations inhabiting the continent.
Describing Africa requires understanding that the continent has such an incredibly diverse population, a population possessing significant social and cultural differences which distinguish each nation from its neighboring counterparts. Assessing each individual nation would be too exhaustive, so it is important to determine relevant cases where there has been more active involvement-or intervention-by the United States. Outside the American public conscience, Libya demonstrates the horrors within which American foreign intervention has brought upon civilian populations. However, the little attention each nation experiences with mainstream media coverage, and the little consideration that each nation has with public opinion, represents a danger to developing a much more progressive approach towards American foreign affairs abroad.
The considerable discontent between aspiration and consequence within American foreign affairs throughout the African continent serves as an important indication that the foreign policymaking institutions within Washington have to consider peace as a secondary objective to maintaining the dynamics of power. The average American possesses such a disconnected understanding of the historical development of the African continent throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, even more so when it comes to how active the United States has been in reshaping the continent. Ultimately, developing an understanding accessible to the average American on how the American approach towards molding the African continent within a more suitable image has been an absolute failure and remains important towards addressing the pressing issues experienced throughout the continent. Restructuring American foreign policy throughout the African continent requires forgoing the militaristic approach, and instead supplementing an approach focusing on promoting a “just” and “moral” approach that considers the human experience.
II - Fifty Stars And One Crescent Moon
Underpinning the dynamics unfolding between the United States and Libya remains a complicated relationship resting on fraught alliances and false promises. Muammar Gaddafi, stylized as the “Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya”, represents the dichotomous relationship between the aspirations guiding American foreign policies and the realities governing American foreign policymaking. His relationships with the pan-Arabism movements within the 1960s and 1970s became the basis for American deliberation over whether eliminating the Gaddafi Administration would mitigate further Soviet involvement within continental politics. Between the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772, combined with both the Egyptian-Libyan and Chadian-Libyan War, the Gaddafi Administration was isolated within international affairs before receiving an important lifeline from none other than the United States.
Despite adhering to Islamic modernism, and introducing sharia principles within the Libyan judicial system, the Gaddafi Administration established an important relationship with the United States by mitigating Islamic fundamentalism throughout the nation. The Cold War concluding coincided with the beginning of American aspirations to eliminate terrorism throughout the greater Middle East, with religious fundamentalism having propagated throughout the region throughout decades of proxy-wars with the USSR. The Gaddafi Administration considered such fundamentalist organizations within Libya to be a concern, assuming such organizations could succeed within seizing political power. Cooperating with the United States represented a Faustian bargain for both nations, especially considering the United States dedicated decades towards posturing over the human rights abuses which occurred throughout the Gaddafi Administration.
Such arrangement became much more precarious starting with the War On Terror, and for the subsequent Arab Spring movements which disseminated throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The Gaddafi Administration continued supporting cooperating regimes within North Africa, opting to introduce restrictions on popular political demonstrations throughout the nation over concerns that the Arab Spring would propagate throughout the region. The popular discontent with the Gaddafi Administration precipitated the Libyan Civil War, with the nation separating into competing factions, and paramilitary organizations becoming the dominating political powers throughout the fractured nation. These conditions prompted the United Nations to issue a request to the International Criminal Court to open an investigation assessing the Libyan Civil War. Furthermore, the United Nations proceeded to suspend Libya from its Human Rights Council as a response to reports by Amnesty International documenting widespread systemic human rights abuses being committed by all participating forces. The purported objective for international intervention by the United States and the United Nations to provide protection for the civilian population affected by the ongoing war between pro-Gaddafi and anti-Gaddafi forces. However, it is probable to assume that the anti-Gaddafi forces would not have succeeded in capturing (and subsequently executing) Gaddafi without receiving assistance from NATO armed forces.
III - “Of Course, There Is No Question”
The quote included demonstrates the ironic manner within which the United States conducts its foreign affairs - purported intention to pursue non-military means within the idealistic sense, and then proceeding with pursuing military means to reaffirm the balance of power. Needless to indicate, the quote above, attributable to the Obama Administration, does not only place that administration within a damning position, but more so the entire neoconservative position that regime change remains a viable approach towards international relations.
Despite the War On Terrorism surpassing two decades, the public conscience within the United States on reconsidering the American approach towards addressing regime change within Libya has remained rather muted. Compared to the popular responses to the United States “withdrawing” from both Afghanistan and Iraq during the Biden Administration, Libya has remained relegated to the political backwaters, where the American political landscape only ventures to during times of crisis.
However, understanding how the War On Terrorism has extended into two decades, as well as how it has extended into the African continent, requires understanding the post-Gaddafi political landscape that Libya became immersed within following its first civil war became nothing less than a strategic “hotbed” for religious fundamentalism and extremism. Extreme political organizations, ranging from al-Qaeda to the Islamic State to smaller indigenous insurgencies throughout the continent, have entered into Libya to establish operations within the nation. The geopolitical boundaries delineating Libya from its neighboring nations - always fraught within a continent that has been so profoundly affected by the consequences of colonialism - became annulled, and political violence has propagated throughout North and East Africa.
Suggesting that the United States has opted to forgo intervening within Libyan affairs since the First Libyan Civil War concluded would be mistaken, as three successive administrations - the Obama, the Trump, and now the Biden Administrations - have each continued the neoconservative approach towards eliminating terrorism through military means. The United States Africa Command maintains active assessment over the nation, and has been allowed to proceed with multiple airstrikes against high-ranking officials within the Islamic State in Libya, irrespective of the civilian casualties which have occurred resulting from these airstrikes. Operation Odyssey Lightning, a collaborative approach between the United States during the Obama and Trump Administration with the Libyan national government under the Government of National Accord, represents the “scorched earth” approach towards eliminating political extremism throughout the besieged nation.
The Biden Administration has remained apprehensive within its international interactions with the provisional governments which have been established within Libya since the second civil war concluded. Between the Government of National Unity, considered the legitimate government within international proceedings, and the Government of National Stability, considered the illegitimate government that the Libyan National Army has supported, the United States and the United Nations have remained at a much greater distance. However, between the Derna Crisis, and escalation between the two competing governments over a contested Tripoli, the United States and other outside international actors are once again poised to have to reconsider its involvement within Libyan affairs.
IV - “Nations Whose Nationalism Is Destroyed Are Subject To Ruin”
The question remains, what comes next? These questions, considered insignificant to the average American, remain not-so-insignificant to the average Libyan, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis within the nation could - and should - be an international concern. The ongoing immigration crisis within the European Union would never have reached such scale within factoring in how destabilizing an entire nation would have affected its indigenous population, and the population within its neighboring nations. Furthermore, the War On Terrorism, which has become its own political backwater within the United States, would not have been able to expand into two decades without Libya contributing to the crisis.
However, it should be stated, that above all else, the international order could - and should - be preoccupied with the Libyan population, and ameliorating the conditions which the civilian populations continue to experience even a decade after the first civil war concluded. Reconciling what we, as average Americans, have been responsible for within supporting administration after administration which has continued the American presence over Libyan affairs remains as daunting as ever. However, recognizing that the United States has been responsible for both perpetuating and for further facilitating human rights abuses within Libya remains the first step in addressing how the United States has negatively affected the international order by initiating its War On Terrorism.
Furthermore, Libya demonstrates that the American commitment to remaining within an unipolar international scene remains as unfeasible as ever. Promoting and pursuing a progressive approach towards foreign affairs within the African continent and within the greater Middle East would allow the United States to reconcile with the historical injustices that it has perpetrated against the indigenous populations within the nations it has affected. Creating a “just” and “moral” approach to American foreign poliycmaking within the African continent requires focusing on promoting a human rights based approach that remains critical about how our actions either promote or detract against the human rights cause. That, and only that, will allow us to start reconciling about what we have done, and where we are to go from here.