Obama Bombs Libya; He Bombed Syria He bombed Yemen, Somalia,Iraq,Pakistan and of course Afghanistan Who’s Next???

Obama Bombs Libya

America's imperial agenda is lawless by any standard

Image Credits: US Navy, Flickr.

by Stephen Lendman | June 16, 2015

Attacking other nations directly or indirectly posing no threat to America is longstanding US policy. Obama is the latest in a long line of warrior US presidents. He exceeds the worst of his predecessors. He’s a war criminal multiple times over.

America’s imperial agenda is lawless by any standard. It includes a sordid history of bombings, invasions, occupations, coups, assassinations, and other destabilizing activities aimed at making the world safe for monied interests – in blatant violation of core international law.

Since WW II, dozens of victimized countries include North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Indonesia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Pakistan (AfPak), Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Ukraine, Somalia, Palestine partnered with Israel, and on Sunday Libya again.

Reuters reported Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren announcing the following:

“Last night, the US military conducted a counterterrorism strike against an Al-Qaeda-associated terrorist in Libya. We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate.”

It’s unclear where the strike took place or what it accomplished. Allegedly senior Al Qaeda commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar was targeted.

Libya’s US-installed stooge regime in Tobruk, outside the rival Islamist Tripoli government, claimed he was killed. Previous reports of his death proved false. A Tobruk statement said:

“The Libyan government announces that American planes undertook action that resulted in the death of the wanted terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar and a number of Libyans belonging to one of the terrorist groups in Eastern Libya, after consultation with the Libyan interim government to take action on terrorist leadership present on Libyan soil.”

Washington’s National Counterterrorism Center says he was a senior Al Qaeda Saharan branch commander before establishing his own “Signed-in-Blood Battalion.”

An Algerian court sentenced him to death in absentia twice. It blamed him for a 2007 attack and siege on a gas facility, resulting in the death of 38 hostages, including three US citizens. A second sentence followed a 2008 incident.

Belmokhtar’s militant roots trace from his anti-Soviet 1980s Afghanistan Mujahideen days. He returned to Algeria in the 1990s battle-scared from shrapnel wounds, including the loss of one eye. He operated in Mali and Libya.

CIA sources say they tracked him since the 1990s. He was known as MBM (his initials), Laaouar (the one-eyed), the Prince, and Abu Khaled.

The New York Times said unnamed US officials “confirmed” Belmokhtar was Sunday’s airstrike target – “carried out by multiple American F-15E fighter jets.”

“It was a strike on an extremist leadership target whom we believed posed a threat against American and Western interests” the official said.

So far no forensic evidence proves his death. Al Qaeda and similar groups are used strategically as both US allies and enemies.

The attack was America’s first since Obama’s 2011 Libya aggression leading to Gaddafi’s ouster and murder. Months of naked aggression turned Libya into a cauldron of violence, instability, chaos and human misery.

On April 15, 1986, Ronald Reagan’s Operation El Dorado Canyon bombing failed to kill Gaddafi. His infant daughter was killed when his compound was attacked. So were over 100 other civilians. Dozens were wounded, including two of Gaddafi’s young sons.

The French, Swiss, Romanian and Iranian embassies were damaged. So were Japanese and Austrian diplomatic residences.

Dozens of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed. Libya’s Central Hospital reported up to 100 people needing treatment for serious injuries, including infants.

War didn’t follow. Does Obama have another one in mind now?

 

LZ Granderson: Obama has bombed twice as many Muslim countries as Bush

By Lauren Carroll on Sunday, September 28th, 2014 at 2:56 p.m.

President Barack Obama meets with representatives from the five Arab countries plus Iraq who have participated in air strikes against ISIS in Syria. (Spencer Platt/Getty)

In light of recent U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, some say the voters who put President Barack Obama into office in 2008 didn’t sign up for this.

On CNN’s State of the Union Sept. 28, political commentator LZ Granderson said Obama is losing favor among his base supporters because of his recent foreign policy decisions. In 2008, they were tired of the wars started under former President George W. Bush and were hoping that a new president would bring them to a close.

"They voted for him because he was supposed to end these wars and stop bombing people," Granderson said. "And when you look at the raw numbers, three times as much Special Forces were used than ‘W.’, twice as many strikes (on) countries that are predominantly Muslim. Those were not the numbers that his staunch progressive base voted for."

Last week, we fact-checked the New Yorker’s Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza, who tweeted, "Countries bombed: Obama 7, Bush 4." We rated that claim True.

Granderson’s claim that there have been "twice as many strikes (on) countries that are predominantly Muslim" is similar to Lizza’s -- but with the added caveat that these are Muslim countries, so we decided to check it out again.

The tally

When we compared Bush and Obama last week, Lizza sent us this list of countries that had been bombed by each president:

Bush: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia.

Obama: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria.

We asked Granderson for additional evidence. He cited the same numbers as Lizza, and pointed to a supporting CNN article.

We found little reason to challenge the nations Lizza and Granderson named. If anything, they shortchanged both presidents.

There’s no question about airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq -- Bush launched wars in both countries, and airstrikes have continued there under Obama.

Drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have been in the news for a long time, with or without official acknowledgment.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit news service based at City University London, maintains a running list of U.S. military actions in a number of countries, including Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, based on press and official reports. By its tally, American drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Somalia occurred under both Bush and Obama.

In the case of Yemen, we found evidence of just one airstrike there under Bush -- back in 2002, reported by BBC News and Time magazine. This would increase Bush’s total to five countries, but the strikes have been much more frequent under Obama.

The air attacks on Libya that helped topple Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 under Obama are well documented. In March 2011, the United States and British warships fired more than 100 cruise missiles to destroy Libyan air defenses.

And, of course, there’s now Syria.

We also found some unconfirmed reports of drone attacks on suspected militant camps in the Philippines in 2006 and 2012, reported by the New York Times and an expert at the Brookings Institute.

If these reports are accurate, the totals for Bush and Obama would rise by one. The final, maximum number would be Bush 6: Obama 8.

Predominantly Muslim

Granderson is correct to say these countries are all predominantly Muslim (with the exception of the Philippines, which is not included in his tally). We found at a Pew report that said each of the seven countries with confirmed airstrikes under Obama are more than 90 percent Muslim, as of 2010.

Afghanistan: 99.8 percent

Iraq: 98.9 percent

Pakistan: 96.4 percent

Somalia: 98.6 percent

Yemen: 99.0 percent

Libya: 96.6 percent

Syria: 92.8 percent

The Philippines, on the other hand, is just 5.1 percent Muslim. For comparison, the United States is 0.8 percent Muslim, according to the Pew report.

Our ruling

Granderson said Obama has conducted "twice as many strikes (on) countries that are predominantly Muslim" as Bush.

By Granderson’s count -- Bush four countries, Obama seven countries -- it’s a little less than twice (1.75 times to be exact). While you can make arguments that both Bush and Obama have bombed additional countries, we think Granderson -- and Lizza before him -- are using reasonable figures based on what’s publicly known.

Granderson’s claim is accurate but could use the caveat nearly twice. As such, we rate it Mostly True.