Hapo ndipo utajua kwamba hawa ni wanyama
US President Barack Obama says his “worst
mistake” in the past eight years has been the
mishandling of the crisis in Libya after the US-
backed ouster of former Libyan dictator
Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Obama said
his “worst mistake” was “probably failing to
plan for, the day after, what I think was the
right thing to do, in intervening in Libya.”
This is while in a BBC interview two weeks ago,
Obama had raised a similar point, adding
"that's a lesson I now apply when we are asked
to intervene militarily. Do we have a plan for
the day after?"
In March 2011, a coalition of US-backed Western
countries, including the UK and France,
launched missile and air strikes on Libya in a
bid to help oust Gaddafi following a national
uprising.
Gaddafi was deposed later that year shortly
after the fall of the capital Tripoli on August
20.
But the ensuing power vacuum allowed various
militant groups, including a Daesh affiliate, to
gain power in the country and exploit its
natural resources.
Both Obama and then US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton keep arguing that Gaddafi’s
overthrow did not incite the Libyan crisis and
the chaos was rather caused by the coalition’s
failure to prop up a stable government in the
days following.
Obama has also put part of the blame on two
traditional US allies, France and the UK, saying
he was wrong to believe they would be
"invested in the follow-up" to Gaddafi’s ouster.
“When I go back and I ask myself what went
wrong, there’s room for criticism, because I had
more faith in the Europeans, given Libya’s
proximity, being invested in the follow-up,”
Obama said in March.
Obama slammed British Prime Minister David
Cameron, in particular, for getting “distracted
by a range of other things” rather than focusing
on Libya.
He also censured France’s ex-president Nicolas
Sarkozy for being “too eager” to take credit for
the Western military intervention against
Gaddafi.
Meanwhile, back in March a six-member UN
panel published their report, stating that Daesh
had “significantly expanded” its territory in
Libya and was posing a severe threat to the
country’s oil installations.
“Libyans have increasingly fallen victim to the
terrorist group's brutalities, culminating in
several mass killings,” the report added.