Post-Gadhafi era is fraught with chaos

Growing violence and destruction have marked Libya’s collapse as a nation since the United States intervened alongside the resistance to the rule of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

No one would dispute the fact that Gadhafi was a cruel tyrant while he led Libya from 1969 … until his death at the hands of rebels three years ago.

He was opposed by a disparate collection of tribal and local militias backed militarily by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and neighboring countries.

What has happened since is causing Libya to become a poster child for the virtues of dictatorial rule in maintaining order. Other candidates for that dubious honor include Egypt, Iraq and Syria, as well as some African countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali.

Libyans destroyed the last major airport in the capital, Tripoli. Oil production, the backbone of the economy and the desert country’s only asset, has become chaotic, in terms of production and marketing.

There are several governments, but no central government. Pieces of the country, even different parts of Tripoli and the second-largest city, Benghazi, are controlled by local militias, and there is no national force capable of defeating them.

Now, an American general is claiming forces of the Islamic State … are training in eastern Libya. This could be true. There are all manner of military forces operating in lawless Libya now. On the other hand, the general might just be preparing Congress and the American people for another expensive U.S. military intervention.

That would be another mistake, comparable to the first U.S. foray into Libya, to the third U.S. intervention in Iraq now underway and to President Barack Obama’s extension of America’s military presence in Afghanistan by a year, without approval from Congress or a way to pay for the operations.

— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette