40 years ago I lived and worked a few miles from Benghazi. This was 10 years after Ghadafi's revolution which, almost bloodlessly, replaced the reviled Idris. As a (white, male, fairly bulky) foreigner I felt very safe wandering the streets of this strange city after dark. The Libyans I worked with (and, BTW, despite their lowly social status - I was based at the local sewage treatment plant) were the most generous and open people I have ever known. I despair of what has happened to a country and a people I hold in such affection.
12
I found this piece incredibly heartbreaking - for the people of Benghazi who lost family and friends, but most importantly, my heart continues to break for the families and friends of the four Americans killed that night, September 11, 2011 -U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty and the ten Americans who were wounded.
There are many ghosts in Benghazi, but the four Americans killed that night will haunt me for many years to come. I cannot imagine the pain and grief their families still endure. Deepest condolences to the families of all lives taken from that broken city.
4
I grew up in Benghazi and attended the University there for a year. The destruction is so profound that of all the images in this story I recognized only a single town square.
15
Fascinating article. A small note: the doughnuts you referred to are part of an activity known as "drifting" which is practiced by young people across the middle east and in the gulf states especially.
6
This is the reason why you don't overthrown dictators without a clear path to create a country. What was shown should be evaluated against what the planners proposed and see what was achieved because Libya was way better in the past than what we see right now in Benghazi.
6
This carnage, death, and destruction are directly attributable to France and the UK governments that asked the US to help them oust Gaddafi, and to President Obama who, pressed by Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice while overruling Joe Biden's opposition, agreed to do so. Obama acknowledged in April 2016 that it was the worst decision of his presidency.
3
I remember clearly that the rationale for the NATO bombing campaign of Libya was specifically to "save" Benghazi from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi who had openly threatened to kill everyone who lived there after the mass protests. I had no idea that there had been so much destruction in the years since. What was the point of getting involved if this was the result? I highly doubt Qaddafi would have been as effective at city destruction.
4
Another of Washington's military misadventures, now a failed state that is home to ISIS, assorted militias and other terrorists, many of which end up in Britain and France.
This is what "endless war" looks like. If you're a supporter of the more liberal of the two endless war parties, you really should watch HRC's ghoulish reaction to the large scale human tragedy she created.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y
5
You can thank Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for this. We have done the same thing to Iraq and Syria. We leave a devastating trail of death and destruction wherever we go to promote "democracy" and our values, as if that is the real reason we do all this horrible stuff.
6
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has no regrets about her support for the overthrow of Gaddafi, according to Foreign Policy magazine.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/14/hillary-clinton-has-no-regrets-about...
And as several sources report, Africans in Libya are now being sold as slaves:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/11/27/clinton-ponders-2020-r...
Well done, Madam Secretary.
7
Certainly, President Obama did blow it (not Hillary Clinton) when he decided to help overthrow Qaddafi (in power for 45 years) and replace Qaddafi with...a failed state.
Since 2011, thousands of migrants have poured into Italy from Libya, and the European Union has done almost NOTHING to assist Italy because according to the EU, the country where a migrant lands are responsible of that migrant. This in turn has destabilized the entire European Union.
Well, at least Obama didn't blow it as badly as George W. Bush did. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq cost the U.S. any chance to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan and led to the creation and success of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, which has driven a permanent wedge between the U.S. and its former aliies in the Middle East.
8
Obama and Clinton. It was she who told Diane Sawyer of ABC that "We came, We saw, he died." They and their teams were both complicit, both managed to demonstrate that Smart Power was neither smart nor powerful. A terrible crime was committed but not investigated, no one indicted, or sent to jail.
Libya destroyed for no good reason. No one lost their job, no one lost a nickel, although I'd venture to say, it was Libya that cost Mrs. Clinton the election.
5
This is the kind of reporting I look for. The Libyan war has for the most part been fought off the media, as is the case with Yemen now. Our only hope of understanding how these countries feel about the 'democratic West' is to see what has happened here, because of Western interference.
12
The Times wasn't interested in the war in "real time," because it was Obama's and Clinton's war. I aIso suspect the Time's suspected that this pointless aggression and subsequent humanitarian disaster would cost Mrs. Clinton the election.
5
Thank you Mr. Walsh for such a remarkable view of Benghazi today. It's an incredible public service to report from these places and see what has become of them after all these years of chaos and fighting.
17