Five years on, NATO's criminal destruction of Libya still Gaddafi's fault

After all, he forced our hand. Had the Nations of Virtue not dispatched the vile ogre, he’d still be slaughtering his own people in their millions to this day…

At least that’s the nonsense professional apologist for Empire Dr. Guma El-Gamaty has on view at Al Jazeera today. He trots out all the usual canards that he’s been trotting out for the past five years; the mass rapes, the imminent genocidal massacres that NATO stopped in the nick of time, the claim that “no Western troops set foot on Libyan soil.” (A lie that was debunked even as the war was going on.)

Mr. El-Gamaty’s sour grapes are understandable. When he became a much-favoured “Libya expert” on mass media back in 2011, he hadn’t been to the country in almost thirty years. He was a British academic with no profile whatsoever in Libya, but for a few brief months he seemed destined for great things. The neo-colonialist “liberators” had him pegged for a prominent leadership role in the new era of democracy they were ushering into Libya.

Must have hurt to see his glorious future go up in smoke.

Speaking of going up in smoke, the record shows that the “rebels” were a lot less enthusiastic than what El-Gamaty recalls. I remember news stories about hash-addled rebels keeping their powder (and their hashish) dry while waiting for the NATO big dogs to do the heavy lifting.

The Libyan revolution was a fraud perpetuated by the Nations of Virtue on the people of Libya, who continue to pay the price today. From the highest standard of living in all Africa, free or deeply subsidized housing, health care, and education, to a bankrupt, violence-ridden failed state, only an idiot could continue to claim our liberation of Libya was a positive accomplishment.