By WALTER RUSSELL MEAD | The American
Interest
If a Republican President had invaded Libya and
overthrown its government, then left bloody chaos, terrorism and rampant arms
smuggling behind, our courageous press corps would be all over the story
like a chicken on a June bug.
But fortunately all this happened under President
Obama, so we don’t hear all that much about it. And when we do, nobody
tries to assign blame to the arrogant ignoramuses who “organized” this
disaster.
But the latest news, that slave markets are
now operating in Libya, where desperate black Africans are being bought and
sold as slaves, ought to trigger some kind of response.
The Guardian:
The north African nation is a major exit point for
refugees from Africa trying to take boats to Europe. But since the overthrow of
autocratic leader Muammar Gaddafi, the vast, sparsely populated country has
slid into violent chaos and migrants with little cash and usually no papers are
particularly vulnerable.
One 34-year-old survivor from Senegal said he was taken
to a dusty lot in the south Libyan city of Sabha after crossing the desert from
Niger in a bus organised by people smugglers. The group had paid to be taken
to the coast, where they planned to risk a boat trip to Europe, but
their driver suddenly said middlemen had not passed on his fees and put his
passengers up for sale.
“The men on the pick-up were brought to a square, or
parking lot, where a kind of slave trade was happening. There were
locals – he described them as Arabs – buying sub-Saharan migrants,” said Livia
Manante, an IOM officer based in Niger who helps people wanting to return home.
She interviewed the survivor after he escaped from Libya
earlier this month and said accounts of slave markets were confirmed by
other migrants she spoke to in Niger and some who had been interviewed by
colleagues in Europe.
Again, if Republicans were responsible for this it would
be the Biggest. Disaster. Ever.
As it is: crickets.
