{"id":5937,"date":"2012-02-15T09:57:14","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T16:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=5937"},"modified":"2012-02-15T09:59:49","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T16:59:49","slug":"obams-foreign-policy-if-you-cant-bomb-them-flat-leave-them-to-ruin-by-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=5937","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s foreign policy, if you can’t bomb them flat, leave them to ruin by civil war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Libya Struggles to Curb Militias as Chaos Grows<\/strong>
\nBy ANTHONY SHADID – 8 February, 2012 – NYT<\/p>\n

TRIPOLI, Libya \u2014 As the militiamen saw it, they had the best of intentions. They assaulted another militia at a seaside base here this week to rescue a woman who had been abducted. When the guns fell silent, briefly, the scene that unfolded felt as chaotic as Libya\u2019s revolution these days \u2014 a government whose authority extends no further than its offices, militias whose swagger comes from guns far too plentiful and residents whose patience fades with every volley of gunfire that cracks at night.<\/p>\n

The woman was soon freed. The base was theirs. And the plunder began.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing gets taken out!\u201d shouted one of the militiamen, trying to enforce order.<\/p>\n

It did anyway: a box of grenades, rusted heavy machine guns, ammunition belts, grenade launchers, crates of bottled water and an aquarium propped improbably on a moped. Men from a half-dozen militias ferried out the goods, occasionally firing into the air. They fought over looted cars, then shot them up when they did not get their way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is destruction!\u201d complained Nouri Ftais, a 51-year-old commander, who offered a rare, unheeded voice of reason. \u201cWe\u2019re destroying Libya with our bare hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country that witnessed the Arab world\u2019s most sweeping revolution is foundering. So is its capital, where a semblance of normality has returned after the chaotic days of the fall of Tripoli last August. But no one would consider a city ordinary where militiamen tortured to death an urbane former diplomat two weeks ago, where hundreds of refugees deemed loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi waited hopelessly in a camp and where a government official acknowledged that \u201cfreedom is a problem.\u201d Much about the scene on Wednesday was lamentable, perhaps because the discord was so commonplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of it is really overwhelming,\u201d said Ashur Shamis, an adviser to Libya\u2019s interim prime minister, Abdel-Rahim el-Keeb. \u201cBut somehow we have this crazy notion that we can defeat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There remains optimism in Tripoli, not least because the country sits atop so much oil. But Mr. Keeb\u2019s government, formed Nov. 28, has found itself virtually paralyzed by rivalries that have forced it to divvy up power along lines of regions and personalities, by unfulfillable expectations that Colonel Qaddafi\u2019s fall would bring prosperity, and by a powerlessness so marked that the national army is treated as if it were another militia.<\/p>\n

The government could do little as local grievances gave rise last month to clashes in Bani Walid, once a Qaddafi stronghold, and between towns in the Nafusah Mountains, where rival fighters, each claiming to represent the revolution, slugged it out with guns, grenades and artillery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a government for a crisis,\u201d Mr. Shamis said, in an office outfitted in the sharp angles of glass and chrome. \u201cIt\u2019s a crisis government. It is impossible to deliver everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graffiti in Tripoli still plays on Colonel Qaddafi\u2019s most memorable speech last year, when he vowed to fight house to house, alley to alley. \u201cWho are you?\u201d he taunted, seeming to offer his best impression of Tony Montana in \u201cScarface.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho am I?\u201d the words written over his cartoonish portrait answered back.<\/p>\n

Across from Mr. Shamis\u2019s office a new slogan has appeared. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Libya Struggles to Curb Militias as Chaos Grows By ANTHONY SHADID – 8 February, 2012 – NYT TRIPOLI, Libya \u2014 As the militiamen saw it, they had the best of intentions. They assaulted another militia at a seaside base here this week to rescue a woman who had been abducted. When the guns fell silent, more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1603],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5937"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5939,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5937\/revisions\/5939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}