A Coup in Libya

For John, BLUF:  Generally military coups are bad, but not always.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Not every coup is a disaster for democracy.  In Libya (retired) General Khalifa Hiftar seems to be moving the nation in the proper direction, fighting islamic terror groups and resisting anarchy.♠  In this case we have an article from Strategy Page, "Libya:  A New Revolution Against The Islamic Terrorists".  The lede:

May 23, 2014: Over the last week a new civil war has broken out.  The leader of the rebels is Khalifa Hiftar a retired army general who seeks to destroy the Islamic militias and Islamic terrorist groups that have prevented the establishment of law and order and blocked rebuilding and economic progress.  Over the past year Hiftar organized like-minded militias and former soldiers and moved into Benghazi on the 16 th.  He immediately gained the loyalty of regular army units deployed there and soon controlled Benghazi.  The Islamic terrorist groups fled the better trained and determined Hiftar Forces and most non-Islamic militias (especially nationalists but also tribal groups) pledged to follow Hiftar.  The attraction here was that Hiftar opposed Islamic radical efforts to establish a religious dictatorship in Libya and an end to the anarchy created by the fact that the many Islamic terrorist groups could not agree on which of them should be in charge.

I say wait and see.  Good things could come out of this, or just more killing.  Revolutions are often messy and often have a "terror" phase.  Just think of the French and Russian Revolutions.  Let us hope that this is a post-terror phase, a "Thermidor", as in the French Revolution.

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Please note that the Wikipedia entry for General Hiftar includes his tribe.  In places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya (and Nigeria) tribe is very important.