After financing extremist militias that violently executed the former Libyan President, Muammar Gaddafi, in addition to launching a brutal war of aggression that turned the richest African nation into a failed State and open slave market, Western media apologists for NATO pretend as if the war never occurred. According to mainstream corporate media, the horrific death toll from the flooding in Libya’s Derna, has nothing to do with the West, but could be connected to Russia.
On September 11, two dams reportedly overflowed due to human errors, leading to devastating flash-floods that decimated almost everything in sight in the city of Derna. Entire neighbourhoods, including homes and the totality of the surrounding infrastructure, was destroyed in the blink of an eye. Horrifying videos and photographs taken from within the city, show dead bodies scattered across the aftermath of the flooding that swept large-swathes of the area’s infrastructure into the sea. Over 11,000 people are confirmed dead so far, with the death toll expected to jump exponentially, as some 30,000 others are said to be missing.
Although the natural disaster occurred due to an apparent series of human errors, Western corporate media began analyzing the situation on the ground in Libya’s beleaguered Derna. Comparisons were drawn between Morocco and its response to the recent freak earthquake that killed thousands in the North African nation’s city of Marrakech. With these comparisons some delved into the context behind both nation’s starkly different natural disaster responses, as it was pointed out that Libya’s inability to aid those in need may have cause excess deaths.
Despite the piece not placing sufficient emphasis on the devastating war waged upon Libya in 2011 by the US-led NATO alliance, by far the best article produced on the issue (that at least mentioned NATO) was written by The Washington Post. The opinion piece was entitled “Libya’s Catastrophe Is Everyone’s Fault”, wherein NATO is actually mentioned once and there is a reasonable amount of blame placed upon the West. Yet, beyond that article, it is as if there was no attack mounted by the NATO alliance in 2011 and the Gaddafi government was simply overthrown organically. Despite The Guardian, CNN, and the BBC, all giving mention to the toppling of the former Libyan ruler, none of them mention NATO even once in their coverage.
The Guardian‘s article on the issue even goes a step further, mentioning that the territory in which Derna falls, is controlled by General Khalifa Haftar — head of the Libyan National Army (LNA). When mentioning who backs Khalifa Haftar, The Guardian article states that he “has been supported by Egypt and helped by Russian mercenaries from the notorious Wagner group“, attempting to shift the blame for the handling of the disaster, by extension, to Moscow and Cairo. In reality, the biggest backers of Khalifa Haftar are the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which they conveniently left out, they also failed to mention that Haftar was a former known asset for the CIA and received backing from France, Saudi Arabia, and even Israel.
I’d be careful believing anything in The Guardian. Having said that, how can NATO be responsible for dams collapsing after a war in 2011? The article states, “On September 11, two dams reportedly overflowed due to human errors, leading to devastating flash-floods that decimated almost everything in sight in the city of Derna.” Was human error at fault or NATO?