The world should proceed with caution in dealing with a new Libya, the influential Council on Foreign Relations said early Thursday morning.
In a news brief sent via email shortly after the reported death of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi at the hands of rebels, CFR analysts warned that “elections held too soon after a civil war often end in violence” and the United Nations and National Transitional Council “should defer their plans until the rebel factions have disarmed and Libya has developed a civil society and modern political institutions.”
The United States was helpful in the topping of Libya, the CFR said, but America's success is "a provisional and limited one" that "will not become a model for future interventions."
"Overreaching Western eagerness to help Libya's rebels will now make it more difficult to line up meaningful outside support for Syria's opposition," one CFR writer speculated.
Western forces reportedly helped capture Qaddafi by using NATO war planes to bomb his convoy.
The late Libyan dictator had been in power since 1969, when - still in his 20s - he was leader of a military coup that seized control of the country.
The UN placed sanctions on Libya in the 1980s because of its history of supplying arms to revolutionaries and terrorist throughout the globe.
The United States carried out extensive bombing of Libya during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Comments