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Canada’s big Libya lie

U.S. President Barack Obama recently referred to NATO’s Libya intervention to oust president Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 as a “shit show.”

It’s no wonder. Once the NATO-backed rebels achieved victory, the country quickly descended into a state of violent anarchy. There is no functioning central government, and many of the estimated 2,000 separate private militias operating there are Islamic extremists, including Daesh supporters.

The vast arsenals funnelled into Libya to supply rebels during the NATO effort are now in the hands of terrorists. The nation has also become an unchecked staging area for human traffickers preying on African asylum seekers desperate to find a better life in Europe.

Obama blames the British and French for leading the campaign to overthrow Gaddafi and then failing to stabilize the country following his murder. Last week a British parliamentary committee published a report roundly condemning prime minister David Cameron’s role in the debacle. 

But where is the clamour in Canada for a similar investigation into our country’s role in that massive failure? 

Prime minister Stephen Harper and his minister of foreign affairs, John Baird, trumpeted the fact that the NATO-led military intervention was commanded by none other than Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Canada also furnished six CF-18 Hornets to bomb the bejesus out of Gaddafi’s loyalists under the authority of a UN resolution to enforce a no-fly zone. That’s right, folks. NATO dropped bombs on Libyans to prevent Gaddafi from dropping bombs on Libyans.

Diplomatically, Baird was the most bellicose Western politician demanding Gaddafi’s ouster. 

When a stalemate developed during the 2011 revolution – the rebels controlled eastern Libya, while Gaddafi loyalists were firmly entrenched in the western provinces – South Africa tried to broker a peace deal in which Libya would have been partitioned and Gaddafi would have remained in control of his own tribal areas.

But our boy Baird wanted none of it, and on June 27, 2011, flew secretly to Benghazi to meet with the Libyan rebels. Baird’s message was clear: NATO wanted Gaddafi gone.

As soon as Baird’s plane touched back down in Rome after his hours-long whirlwind visit to Libya, he told reporters he was impressed with the rebels. 

“I saw a commitment and a passion that you can only see when you’re sitting across the table from these men and women,” Baird breathlessly told them. “It certainly had a positive impression on me.”

At that stage, numerous media reports were already revealing that most in the anti-Gaddafi coalition were in fact an assortment of criminal organizations and Islamic extremists, some with links to al Qaeda.

Following Gaddafi’s defeat, Harper and Baird gave themselves a big pat on the back, staging an elaborate victory parade and celebratory flyover past Parliament Hill. Those ceremonies included the awarding of the Order of Canada to Lieutenant General Bouchard for his successful defeat of Libya’s military.

Like the Brits, we should launch a parliamentary investigation into the role our political leadership played in committing Canada to the forefront of the Libyan catastrophe. Cameron isn’t the only one responsible for the ongoing deaths and suffering in Libya he has Canadian company in Harper and Baird.

We claimed we would liberate the Libyan people from a despot instead we delivered them into anarchy.

Scott Taylor is a former Canadian infantry soldier and founder of Esprit De Corps Magazine.

news@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

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