LibyaPolitics

American military expert: Controlling Tripoli means “destroying it first”

The senior fellow and military expert at the US Defense Properties, Colonel Daniel Davis, said whoever wants to seize control of Tripoli by force should be ready to destroy the whole city as there is no other way, adding that noone can seize a city from a party that doesn’t want to give it up unless they are ready to kill lots of people and sacrifice large numbers of fighters.

Speaking in an interview with US-L program on 218News, Davis said those who can’t engage in destruction should stop now as this war can’t be won while both parties are willing to defend what they have, adding that they should also take heed of powers balance or else the fighting will continue for long causing irrevocable damage.

Davis said Tripoli’s battle is still ongoing because it is in a vast urban area and this kind of wars is the most difficult, adding that none of the warring parties wants to wipe out Tripoli from the map and that they could continue to battle but neither of them is close to winning militarily.

He indicated that the US military command should not follow the Afghanistan model in dealing with Libya, adding that the US administration has lots of urgent issues on the table and Libya is the last on its priority list – maybe the seventh or eighth on the list – saying the administration hasn’t even gotten over with the first or second issue yet.

“You won’t win the Tripoli battle because you’re not strong enough to defeat the other party which is not strong enough as well to beat you, so all you have left is prolonging the battle without any possibility for solutions. Libya’s crisis can’t be resolved shortly even if the US administration made it atop its priority list.” Davis said.

He also said that he doesn’t think that the US President Donald Trump is siding with the General Commander of the Libyan National Army Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and that his call with Haftar was very confusing and perplexing.

“Libya doesn’t have a geopolitical value to the US, rather it has importance of economic, energy and trade values.” Davis added.

Davis said the reemergence of ISIS in Libya reveals that it is insignificant to use traditional military operations to destroy a terrorist organization as ideologies can’t be destroyed by airpower, saying he is opposed to the idea that the US is the leader in war on terrorism.

Davis said the US intervention to oust Gaddafi was wrong as there was not plan for what’s next and that many years have now passed with the status quo lingering as “nothing on the horizon seems to solve the civil war in Libya.”

Commenting on US AFRICOM’s role, Davis said it is the wrong entity to take decisions in Libya as the military officers are unqualified for political decisions and the US has not steady strategy for North Africa and Middle East.

“One of the problems for the US administration in Libya is that it sides with one party only provides it with all military and other types of support. Providing warring parties with weapons diminishes their willingness to reach a dialogue-based solution.” He indicated.

Davis added that the US should use its diplomatic leverage to prevent other countries from intervening in Libya as the stability in the region would entail comfort for all countries who are stakeholders in the Libyan situation.

“As a world leader country, the US is committed to have leadership roles in Libya as is Europe, especially France that has a history and experience in the Libyan situation.” Davis explained.

The senior fellow also stressed that the US army should not be used in resolving problems in any country in Africa.

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