A Quick Word on Libya

A Quick Word on Libya #Libya #Benghazi #CIA #StateDeptartment #WhiteHouse  

     As I was not in Benghazi on the day of the attack, I'd rather not guess as to what happened and what didn't happen and the politicalization of these events are both distractive and annoying.  While investigations are justified and there is a need to figure out what happened and what changes can be made to make sure such events don't happen again, I would prefer to use the recent attention brought back towards Libya to remind us about what still needs to be done in Libya.  The fairest criticism of the Iraq war, whether you supported it or not, and whether it was good for Iraq and America or not, is that it certainly pulled resources away from Afghanistan.  I, for one, am a bit more of realist, and while Afghanistan is right along the silk road, provides staging grounds for potential conflicts with either Iran or Pakistan, unless you build gas pipelines or sell Vicatin its a brutish wasteland with minimal financial opportunities aside form limited mineral deposits and mining contracts for which the American populace as a whole, will never see any noticeable benefit aside from hopefully, less Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks planned and coordinated from inside Afghanistan.  

     

        Libya on the other hand, is a relatively wealthy nation, which before the war had household incomes rivaling European countries along the mediterranean and has immense oil reserves.  Its also is in striking distance of our allies in Europe.  The direction we take Libya will likely have an effect on the direction of North Africa and so before we jump in on the muddled mess that is Syria, I'd like to see bipartisan and transatlantic agreement on what to do with Libya.  Unlike in Egypt or Tunisia, the Islamists did not win in the elections and we have an opportunity to create a stable, secular and wealthy democratic nation in Libya.  To secure this, much work needs to be done.  The security situation has to come first.  The markets of chaos are not a long-term economic foundation you can build a modern nation upon.  While the rag tag militias that fought so bravely in the Libyan civil war deserve a say in the government and positions within its new military and security apparatus, there has to be a chain command and some oaths of loyalty to its leadership.  Forward policing must be used to route out the rogue brigades such as Ansar Al-Sharia brigade believed to be behind the 9/11/12 attacks on on the Consulate in Benghazi.  America has a role to provide in helping to train and regiment these brigades while providing oversight and resources for technocrats to come in and build up the civil functionality of the Libyan State.   After security, the westernized world must work together to help build up the civil service departments, then improve education and medical facilities to lay the foundation for economic investments geared towards modernizing the economy and creating a strong regional trading partner that serves as an example of secular Islamo-democratic governance in North Africa that regional nations can follow.  If we can show north Africans that pro-American, secular governance improves the livelihoods of their citizens than America can better achieve its interests in the region by spreading stable, secular democracies with open markets for internal and external trade than western civilization will prevail against religious extremism.