Europe Helps US Destroy Libya, Now Blames/Sanctions Russia

October 24, 2020 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - The EU has leveled sanctions against Russia for - among other things - "meddling" in Libya's ongoing civil war.

AFP in its article, "EU sanctions senior Putin aides over Navalny, Libya," would claim: 

The EU said Wagner had committed "multiple and repeated breaches" of a UN arms embargo on Libya, where Russia has backed warlord Khalifa Haftar in his uprising against the internationally-recognised government.

The UK - despite leaving the EU - has also said it would uphold the sanctions. 

The EU's attempt to high-road Russia, however, raises an important point - that it was the EU alongside the US who destroyed Libya's government in 2011 in the first place. 

The 2011 Western military intervention led to the civil war now currently consuming the nation and its people. And if Russia really is supplying weapons to Libyan groups in Libya - they are fighting groups who are being supplied arms in violation of the same UN arms embargo by other nations - namely the EU and the US.  

The US and Europe Destroyed Libya in the First Place 

Libya's ongoing chaos is a direct result of a 2011 US-led military intervention which included forces from several European nations including the UK. After destroying much of the nation's infrastructure and ousting the Libyan government led by Muammar Qaddafi - Libya was plunged into perpetual infighting as the country was divided by competing warlords and terrorist organizations flush with weapons the US and Europe provided them. 

The US-led military intervention eventually impacted Washington's European allies directly when a tidal wave of refugees flooded Europe from Africa to not only flee the war in Libya itself but also because Libya - once a safe haven for Africans from across the continent - was no longer hospitable. Arms the US and Europe provided militants and terrorists in Libya were also proliferated across the entirety of North Africa fuelling conflicts across the region. 

The US and Europe have since cynically used the consequences of their own military intervention as a pretext to remain perpetually involved in Libya's ongoing conflict - transparently exposing the self-serving politically-motivated nature of attempts to accuse Russia of "meddling."  

Despite Europe's direct and continued role in Libya's destruction - it has followed Washington's lead in blaming Russia - but obviously for no real concern over Libya's future which Europe itself helped destroy - and instead rather to aid Washington in its increasingly confrontational propaganda, economic, and hybrid war with Russia.

Europe One Step Forward, Two Steps Back in Breaking With Washington 

Europe has recently found itself locked in a foreign policy cycle " taking one step forward, and two steps back." Attempts to ignore US demands to shun both Russia and China have been received positively internationally providing hope that at least some in the West may desire a more constructive role upon the global stage. 

However sanctions aimed at Russia regarding Libya coupled with Europe's unrepentant role in the US-led war which destroyed Libya in the first place is a stark reminder of just how far the West still must go to reach even the most basic standards of maintaining equitable relations with the rest of the world. 

It remains to be seen whether these sanctions are followed up by a growing dedication to Washington's expanding and increasingly dangerous anti-Russian as well as anti-Chinese campaign - or is a means of relieving pressure the US is placing on its own European allies for their increased, apparent desire to do business with both Russia and China. 

Regardless of what current circles of power in Europe intend on doing - supporting the US further or eventually pivoting East - the shifting balance of power hinged on the rise of Eurasia is and will continue rolling back the West's style of exploitation and coercion and ensure that either current circles of Western power learn to work with rather than above the rest of the world - or new circles willing to do so will rise among Western political and economic circles to replace them.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.