Article

2019-05-17 Africa North

US House Foreign Affairs Committee calls for probing Haftar for war crimes

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Posted by Fred 2019-05-17 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top
File under: Arab Spring

#1 This is the guy we trained, right?

Posted by Herb McCoy 2019-05-17 07:49|| 2019-05-17 07:49|| Front Page Top

#2 and the Herb Hand-wringing commences

Posted by Frank G 2019-05-17 09:06|| 2019-05-17 09:06|| Front Page Top

#3 Well, "we" is a freighted and fraught label. Yeah, taxpayers like me paid for whatever the USGOV did for / with this guy, but I don't remember checking the "go for it" box on the memo...

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 10:02|| 2019-05-17 10:02|| Front Page Top

#4 I remember in the 1990's the Democrats having hearings about Central American (quote) Right Wing Death Squads (un-quote) and officers that had gone to the School of the Americas at Ft. Bragg, subsequently renamed as WHINESEC. The argument was that: "Bad Officers attended ergo the CIA taught them how to be evil torturers". The assumption that we, the US Government, are the source of all evils in the world seem remarkably ... arrogant.

Posted by magpie 2019-05-17 10:28|| 2019-05-17 10:28|| Front Page Top

#5 we, the US Government

Yes, yes, I know the theory is "we the people" are the government. In practice, that's Just. Not. True. Please adjust your commentary to at least partially reflect the truth...

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 11:16|| 2019-05-17 11:16|| Front Page Top

#6 Yogi Berra: "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are completely different..."

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 11:19|| 2019-05-17 11:19|| Front Page Top

#7 What difference, at this point, does it make?

Posted by Abu Uluque 2019-05-17 11:29|| 2019-05-17 11:29|| Front Page Top

#8 More difference than madame pantsuit would ever admit.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 11:34|| 2019-05-17 11:34|| Front Page Top

#9 The idiots who shout "democracy! democracy! all the time would go bald instantly if this country was run on plebiscites. The demolished notion that there would be more money for "pre-K" and gay art than for submarines and missiles would make them scream for a return to a bastardized republic.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 11:37|| 2019-05-17 11:37|| Front Page Top

#10 McRaven is eructating again today also.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 12:04|| 2019-05-17 12:04|| Front Page Top

#11 thus creating the current crisis in the country which would affect many neighboring and regional states.

Alternatively, it seems that this guy is doing exactly what we would want done to stabilize the region.

Posted by Skidmark 2019-05-17 12:33|| 2019-05-17 12:33|| Front Page Top

#12 Sadly, like the Syrians, the Libyans as a people have demonstrated conclusively that they are not anywhere near ready to live democratically, however eager some enlightened citizens might be on the subject. A relatively benevolent strongman is the best they can hope for, but one way or another a strongman is what they will get. The

Posted by trailing wife 2019-05-17 12:45|| 2019-05-17 12:45|| Front Page Top

#13 Whoops! Premature postulation sorry! To continue:

The alternative is the vicious war of all against all they’ve been experiencing in recent years, while various jihadi groups expand training camps into proto-emirates.

Posted by trailing wife 2019-05-17 13:11|| 2019-05-17 13:11|| Front Page Top

#14 Always a chance to try something new, like glassification.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 13:38|| 2019-05-17 13:38|| Front Page Top

#15 If we wouldn't have trained him and sent him back, he wouldn't have committed these war crimes. Simple cause and effect.

I look forward to more froth-at-the-mouth ad hominems in place of reasoned arguments.

Posted by Herb McCoy 2019-05-17 13:39|| 2019-05-17 13:39|| Front Page Top

#16 Qdaffy never studied in the U.S. and consider all the crimes he committed. Hitler never trained in the U.S. Attending school in the United States is not necessarily a prerequisite for the commission of war crimes. And besides that, one man's war criminal is another man's hero. And besides this little investigation, what is Tom Malinowski gonna do about? Will he demand that the US intervene? Sorry, but I think the US has staged quite enough interventions.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2019-05-17 13:55|| 2019-05-17 13:55|| Front Page Top

#17 Best thing the US could ever have done regarding foreign nationals studying here would have been to kill Sayyed Qutb.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 13:58|| 2019-05-17 13:58|| Front Page Top

#18 Best thing the US could ever have done regarding foreign nationals studying here would have been to kill Sayyed Qutb.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 13:58|| 2019-05-17 13:58|| Front Page Top

#19 If pointing out that I (and many other Americans) didn't vote to create Haftar is "foaming at the mouth ad hominem," Im'a gonna foam away..

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 14:10|| 2019-05-17 14:10|| Front Page Top

#20 I don't care if I meet Herb's criteria. He's a concern troll

Posted by Frank G 2019-05-17 14:16|| 2019-05-17 14:16|| Front Page Top

#21 It needs to be said, Frank, that Herb's continuous use of we (meaning all Americans) is dis-fucking-honest and needs to be called out every fucking time.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 14:29|| 2019-05-17 14:29|| Front Page Top

#22 Even in the soviet goddam union collectivist utopia there were people who refused to go along for the ride. Claiming every American is in favor of every misadventure dreamed up in McLean or the White House is a reach too far.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 14:33|| 2019-05-17 14:33|| Front Page Top

#23 And who was in the White House when Haftar was being cultivated? Hmmm?

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-05-17 14:38|| 2019-05-17 14:38|| Front Page Top

#24 Well, there's always the Punic War technique that kept the Libyans quiet for a fair piece, no?

Posted by AlanC 2019-05-17 14:44|| 2019-05-17 14:44|| Front Page Top

#25 We admit we just skimmed the article (that's the Royal We, bitches!), but except for talking to The Donald on the phone, I didn't see anything resembling war crimes. We await enlightenment.

Posted by SteveS 2019-05-17 14:59|| 2019-05-17 14:59|| Front Page Top

#26 Herb, I know it's hassle to have to get in your car, drive to the local Google library and go into Google's reference section, but it's something we all have to do to see if our biases are borne out by the facts:

Haftar was born in Ajdabiya around 1943,[12][13] and is a member of the al-Farjani tribe.[14] He studied at al-Huda School in Ajdabiya in 1957 and then moved to Derna to obtain his secondary education between 1961 and 1964.[15] He joined the Benghazi Military University Academy (also known as Benghazi Royal Military College) on 16 September 1964 and graduated from there in 1966.[16] In the late 1970s, he went on to receive military training in the Soviet Union, completing a special three-year degree for foreign officers sent to study in the USSR, at the M.V. Frunze Military Academy. Haftar later pursued further military training in Egypt.[5][17] He was also stationed with the artillery corps in a mosque.[18]

Posted by Zhang Fei 2019-05-17 22:30|| 2019-05-17 22:30|| Front Page Top

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