Libya – Again
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Gen. Kalifa Hifter – Photo: Mohammed El-Sheikhy/AP
Earlier this week, there was an article about AFRICOM withdrawing some US troops from Libya.
“A small contingent of U.S. troops has been in Libya to help local forces combat Islamic State and al-Qaida-aligned militants, as well as to protect diplomatic facilities.
Some of those troops were temporarily pulled from Libya, AFRICOM announced Sunday.” – Article
This current article indicates that a Libyan with dual US-Libya citizenship, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, has been consolidating his own forces in the eastern part of Libya. He was Libya’s top army chief and someone who originally helped Mohammar Qadafi overthrow the Libyan monarchy in 1969, then left for the USA after Qaddafi’s attempt to take over Chad.
The assessment is that the solution to Libya will be political, not military, and that Hifter’s presence while busying himself putting his military backup together will be mostly show, rather than warfare.
Meantime, the Russians (yes, they’re in this, too!) are attempting to make nice with Hifter by using the same tactics for weapons sales that they used when Qaddafi was in power, as well as acquiring oil contracts. Now, since Russia has the reportedly largest oil shale reserves in the world, you’d have to ask why they’d want to go after Libya’s light sweet crude. They deny that they’re backing Hifter, but they’re still trying to do business with him.
Since Qaddafi bit the Big One, there have been many fires at the oil storage centers that were difficult and dangerous, and nearly impossible, to put out. This hampered sales, obviously, especially with ISIS running rampant through northern Africa early on in their game. Now ISIS’s teeth have been pulled, but they still have some chops left, according to the news article.
Meantime, perhaps it is wisest to pull our people out. We have large oil reserves, too.
This should be interesting. Stock up on popcorn.
When deployed to Sigonella in the bad old days of the Cold War, once or twice a day we would fly very close to the coast of Tunisia (ADIZ? Never heard of it), ostensibly to check out which ships Ivan had parked there in the Gulf of Hammamat, but to also to trail our coattails to see if Wacky Qaddafi would launch his MiG 21s on us.
It was all fun and games until he actually did. Things got busy then.
Good times. Kind’a miss the old goat.
So now there’s a new sheriff in town, the Russians are making nice, and the natives are restless. Good to see not a helluvalot has changed.
Awesome ribbon rack. The awards just seem to meld.
He’s pretty low key when compared with Qaddafi.
Qaddafi must have gone to Norkiland to get all that bling. 🙂 And baby blues? Oh, that is too suh-weet!
One thing you can say about old Daffy Qaddafi, he looked damn impressive in that dress pastel blue uni. I especially like the badge that looks like the old Texaco star. Who knew “the man who wears the star” was pumping Libyan crude products.
Definitely expressing himself by wearing more than the minimum 15 pieces of flair.
Is that a Texas Ranger badge 2nd row?
I think there’s a spot for one more, below the fourth row, middle. That’s enough, any more would just be ostentatious. He’s not a NORK General, after all.
Hell, the current crop of EM with four or five years of service in any of our military branches have that many rows of participation ribbons, plus a shitload of badges.
World domination has been the communist goal for a hundred years and more. They figured out the best way to help that goal is to force us to spend billions to keep an eye on them, and to be ready to fight. ‘Ed’s right, not much has changed.
I think these countries have a tendency to play one side against the other, just to see how much they can get.
Get our people out. Anybody remember Benghazi?
Yes. It will never go away, you know.
And we flew bombers out of Benghazi into Romania during WWII to destroy the oil tank storage fields.
Dad was a B-24 mechanic with the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group (The Liberandos) in Benghazi. Somewhere I have a picture of him sitting on the outside latrine with a camel in the distance.
That country is a shit hole.Reagan bombed the heck out of Qaddafi,killed his grand kid,and he when cold for a while.Then his son starts sending money and arms to abu syaid in the Philippines. If anyone wants to have a good bit of news when they caught Qaddafi they sodomized him over and over. Don’t ask me how a muslin rationalized that bit of anal derrydo.
Well at least this new guy’s a General…Qaddafi was merely a Colonel.
I think Hifter resembles Gene Hackman, at least a bit.