Libya is another example of how hearsay substitutes for evidence in the minds of so many Americans. Practically all of the Americans I have spoken with about the end of the Qaddafi regime were certain that he had been single-handedly overthrown by the United States. They had absolutely no idea that since the outcome of wars is determined by boots on the ground, it was principally the Libyans who deposed Qaddafi, backed up mainly by French and British aerial support (which is a point once made by the United Kingdom’s secretary of state at that time, William Hague.) To add insult to injury, Americans by and large do not seem to be aware that the only two major contributions made by their country to Libya’s modern history are ones of which they cannot justifiably be proud: Nixon’s support of Qaddafi in 1969 when he successfully overthrew the constitutional government of King Idris, and Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya following the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime, in spite of the fact that it was the Muslim Brotherhood, in alliance with other Islamists and various unruly militias, who started the current raging civil war that is tearing the country apart after they had failed to win more than 16% of popular votes in Libya’s 2014 democratic elections. That is why many Libyans were joyful when Trump won the elections; it wasn’t so much that they cared about Trump, but rather that the “serpent” (as Hillary Clinton is called in Libya) had lost.
- Husam Dughman, Author and Political Analyst
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