Posted on 02/24/2013 6:44:56 PM PST by Pan_Yan
Tripoli, Libya
In the seventeen months since Muammar Qaddafi was killed, Libya has made building an army a top national priority. But progress toward achieving this goal has been slow at best, with an official admitting that he does not even know how many soldiers are currently in the army.
Public statements by senior Libyan leaders suggest that there is little disagreement over the notion that the country desperately needs a functioning military to ensure a peaceful transition – and a clean break from the Qaddafi legacy of a weak army dwarfed by powerful brigades loyal to the autocrat’s sons. However, political will alone hasn't been enough to effect serious reforms.
The decrepit, near nonexistent, state of the army two years after Libyans rose up against Qaddafi is a symbol of the interim government’s failure to begin developing institutions to guide Libya’s path toward a democratic state. The hurdles to building an army reflect the broader struggles facing Libya as it seeks to define its national identity in the wake of 42 years of a regime based solely on the whims of one man.
Over the past year, Libyan authorities have largely entrusted the revolutionaries who overthrew Qaddafi with the task of maintaining security across the country, punting on the responsibility of building new army and police forces. Militia fighters in a rainbow of uniforms – not soldiers or police officers – remain the predominant public face of security in Tripoli and in other cities and towns throughout the country.
Absent a strong central command to manage the conduct of the thousands of local militias participating in security provision, many of the militias that overthrew Qaddafi remain intact and continue to operate outside the confines of law.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Next on the agenda is stability for Syria. LOL
Obama’s biggest foreign policy blunder (so far)!
Oh, I think Egypt has that one beat by a mile.
I don’t think either case was a “blunder”.
Thanks Pan_Yan.
Remember, this was done as part of NATO following UN instructions. It was in regards to this that Gates basically said that the UN has final say in our military actions, not Congress. Big picture: the oil started flowing to Europe again so alls good even if they are flying an Al Qaeda flag.
It will dissolve into tribal warfare.
Hatred towards each other and even more hatred to any non-muslims.
Terrorists will train there with impunity to take sharia law towards Europe and America.
Thank you obama.
Since when is there a true nation in North Africa or Muslim inhabited lands. (Israel excluded - they have multiple tribes, but a single nation and a tradition that goes by thousands of years.) Libya is clan oriented. Libya is Muslim dominated. Should we expect no less than struggles to build a military without a dictator to buy and impose his will?
These are not a people of the West. They are not a nation.
Post WWI and WWII history should be revisited by free nations to learn what doesn't work with these vernon.
Another map with lines drawn by Europeans with no regard of how the locals felt about it.
I tried to write, since I never finish them, where survivors of WW3 colonized Africa around Lake Victoria. In the scenario the northern hemisphere was basically depopulated through war and disease while Africa pretty much died from disease and starvation.
The story revolved around a female Cobra pilot but I forgot where I was going with it. lol.
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