Successful U.S. Action in Libya Leads to Jihadists Controlling Secret American Bases There.
Without getting sidetracked with "What About Benghazi?" questions (which are well worth asking), check out this new story from The Daily Beast's Eli Lake. It tells you all you need to know about the sagacity of Barack Obama's unilateral and unconstitutional commitment of U.S. forces in Libya.
A key jihadist leader and longtime member of al Qaeda has taken control of a secretive training facility set up by U.S. special operations forces on the Libyan coastline to help hunt down Islamic militants, according to local media reports, Jihadist web forums, and U.S. officials.
In the summer of 2012, American Green Berets began refurbishing a Libyan military base 27 kilometers west of Tripoli in order to hone the skills of Libya's first Western-trained special operations counter-terrorism fighters. Less than two years later, that training camp is now being used by groups with direct links to al Qaeda to foment chaos in post-Qaddafi Libya.
Last week, the Libyan press reported that the camp (named "27" for the kilometer marker on the road between Tripoli and Tunis) was now under the command of Ibrahim Ali Abu Bakr Tantoush, a veteran associate of Osama bin Laden who was first designated as part of al Qaeda's support network in 2002 bythe United States and the United Nations. The report said he was heading a group of Salifist fighters from the former Libyan base.
Well that's just great, isn't it?
Luckily for Obama, who replaced a terrible Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) with an even worse one (John Kerry), and whose Defense Department is full of whiny crybabies (Leon Panetta back in the day, various officers today), nobody cares about Libya anymore. Qaddafi could be back in power and no one would give a rat's ass. Because, you know, we need to fix what's wrong in Syria. Or Crimea. Or Ukraine. Or maybe Venezuela. Or Rhode Island. The most important thing in U.S. foreign policy is that, like the rock band Boston and Satchel Paige, you should never look back. U.S. foreign policy, like a third-rate boxer or Mad Men's Don Draper only goes in one direction: Forward.
