DUSHANBE, April 11, 2016, Asia-Plus — Failing to plan for the aftermath of the US-led military intervention in Libya was President Barack Obama’s worst mistake during the eight years in the White House, Obama himself confessed to US media.
“Probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya,” President Obama said in a
Fox News
interview aired Sunday.
This is not the first time in recent weeks he has talked about Libya and the NATO-led intervention which resulted in Gadhafi”s death in October of that year, months after NATO first intervened.
BCB
reports that a month ago, Obama admitted that Libya has been a “mess” since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, but blamed UK Prime Minister David Cameron , along with former French President Nicolas for the chaos.
Although Obama said he thinks the intervention went as well as it could, he views Libya today as a “mess.”
Privately, according to the article, he refers to the troubled state as a “sh*t show.”
In a statement to
CNN
, a National Security Council spokesman tried to qualify Obama”s remarks and reassure that the alliance between the United Kingdom and United States remains strong.
“Prime Minister Cameron has been as close a partner as the President has had, and we deeply value the UK”s contributions on our shared national security and foreign policy objectives which reflect our special and essential relationship,” NSC spokesman Ned Price said.
In September, Obama also criticized the Libya intervention during a speech before the U.N. General Assembly. “Our coalition could have and should have done more to fill a vacuum left behind,” he had said.
Obama said in the Sunday interview that “saving the economy from a great depression” after the financial crisis in 2008 was his top White House accomplishment.
In March of 2011, the UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution on Libya authorizing the international community to “take all necessary measures” to protect the civilian population. The US-led coalition then proceeded to intensively bomb the Libyan army, eventually toppling the country’s leader, Gaddafi, who was killed in October of the same year.
