BENGHAZI, LIBYA – In our haste to get rid of leaders we don’t like we don’t take the time to consider what their removal will lead to.
There are a lot of bad presidents/kings/dictators-for-life out there, aren’t there? Whether it is the son of a brutal tyrant (hello Bashar Al Assad of Syria!), the grandson of a whack-job (hello Kim Jong-un!) or just awful people (Iraq’s Saddam Husayn, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Iran’s Ayatollah Khamene’i….), we would probably be better off if they went away.
At times, outside states take action to remove heads of state they don’t want. The consequences of their actions are not always considered however. Is Iraq in a better place since the departure of Saddam Husayn?
Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi is another good example. After he was found in a drainage ditch in October 2011 he was summarily executed by some very angry Libyans. Anyone see Libya today as a paragon of stability? On the contrary.
In actual fact, the North African nation has been at war for over a decade. That conflict has opened the door for terrorists to execute their own atrocities.
On this day in 2014
Several car bombs exploded at a Libyan army academy in the eastern city of Benghazi, killing at least eight people and wounding more than a dozen. No group claimed responsibility for the bombing which was set off as people were leaving a graduation ceremony.
The secretary general calls on all parties to respect the humanitarian truce and return to the negotiating table to pursue the peaceful future the people of Libya deserve.
UN spokesperson
No one misses the quixotic and mercurial Qadhafi, that is for sure. And yet Libya is nowhere near normal in his absence.
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