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Obama diverting attention from his own Libya role: Analyst

Saturday, 12 March 2016 2:55 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 12 March 2016 2:53 AM ]

“He [Obama] is looking at the British and the French as being the bad guys in the destruction of Libya when it was the United States that led the effort,” DeBar says.

US President Barack Obama’s slamming of France and the UK over the destruction of Libya is an attempt to gloss over his own administration’s leading role in turning the African country into a failed state, says an American political analyst.

Obama criticized America’s traditional allies, the United Kingdom and France, over their Libya policy in the aftermath of the 2011 overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

In March 2011, a coalition of Western countries, including the United States, the UK and France, launched missiles and airstrikes on Libya in a bid to help oust Gaddafi following a national uprising.

Gaddafi was deposed later that year in the wake of the fall of capital Tripoli on August 20.

In an interview with Press TV on Friday, radio host and political commentator Don DeBar said that the UK and France deserve blame for what happened in Libya, but Washington’s role should not go unnoticed.

“He [Obama] is looking at the British and the French as being the bad guys in the destruction of Libya when it was the United States that led the effort,” DeBar said.

“There was no way that the Brits or the French could have conducted this war against Libya without not just active US support, but a leading role by the United States,” he continued.

The analyst noted that the US Air Force conducted most of the NATO air raids against the African country, while most of the weaponry used by the French and the British forces was provided by the US.

“So, certainly [British Prime Minister David] Cameron is culpable, and [former French president Nikolas] Sarkozy and his successor (François) Hollande are culpable, for sure they are.” DeBar said. “But so is Barack Obama and he is the primary culprit along with his foreign policy minister at that time, Hillary Clinton.”

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