BENGHAZI, Libya — Benghazi remains seared in American minds due to the murder of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens 14 years ago, when Islamist extremists attacked the U.S. Consulate. Today, Benghazi is a very different place.
The murder shocked not only Americans but also Libyans. The 2011 Revolution in Libya began in front of a Benghazi courthouse within sight of the city’s famous lighthouse and abutting the beachfront. Libyans wanted something better, but the Islamists — many supported by Turkey and Qatar — had other ideas.
Those who murdered Stevens were anathema to Libyans. Family is everything in Arab society, but Libyans disowned sons captured by the Ansar al Sharia or Islamic State ideology. Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan National Army who had spent years in Virginia, launched Operation Dignity to cleanse Libya of the Islamic State terrorist groups.
Over 5,000 Libyan soldiers died after Americans went home. The fight to rid Benghazi of militant Islamist militias was brutal, and Benghazi still bears the scars. The Islamic State group detonated the courthouse, which, for Libya, symbolized hope. Door-to-door fighting devastated the old city, much of which was destroyed beyond repair.
Today, Benghazi is a very different city. Local authorities have rebuilt the courthouse. Benghazi is secure enough that even women and children hang out on the miles-long corniche that begins just across from it, even hours after dark. New developments have added to the skyline, and billions of dollars of retail investment have flooded the city. Cranes and construction are everywhere.
Khalifa Haftar may be the symbol of the fight against the Islamic State, but his son Saddam increasingly represents the substance of the new government. Together, they control about 70% of Libyan territory across the east and south of the country, as well as most of its oil and gas fields.
In 2012, Libya held free elections — the country’s first in 60 years. The Libyan people overwhelmingly repudiated the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist parties, giving nearly half the votes to the National Forces Alliance. Islamists balked, and President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged mediation. Haftar and his allies agreed, but the result was simply the retrenchment of Islamists who, as with Algeria’s Islamists two decades before, wanted one man, one vote elections so long as they needed only be one time, and in the Islamists’ favor.
What happened next was a bifurcation of power. The elected parliament moved to Haftar’s territory, but the United Nations recognized the Islamist-dominated coalition in Tripoli as the U.N.-recognized government, mostly by virtue of being in Tripoli.
What has occurred over subsequent years is the triumph of unrealistic diplomatic theory rooted entirely in an arbitrary Obama-era decision. Qatari and Turkish cash funneled propaganda campaigns warning darkly of Libya’s dissolution. The State Department fell in line, repeatedly trying to undermine first Khalifa, then Saddam Haftar, with demands for unity under Tripoli’s umbrella. This is historically ignorant. Benghazi was Libya’s constitutional co-capital from 1951 to 1969, nor is Libya the only country that had multiple capitals: Bolivia and South Africa do, but neither the State Department nor U.N. hand-wring over their dissolution.
Subsequent State Department frustration with Khalifa Haftar fueled the tilt to the Islamists in Tripoli. They accused the Haftars of working with Russia, for example. Khalifa did at the time. But the Kremlin also complained that they refused to follow Russian President Vladimir Putin’s orders. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is likewise frustrated that Saddam will not take Turkish diktats. Welcome to Libyan sovereignty. Libya is no colony, but it can be a partner worthy of respect.
Today, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio should stop blind acceptance of Hillary Clinton’s policy. Unity is a noble goal, but it should not mean subordination of the secure east under the Sadiq Al-Ghariani, the terror-sympathizing Mufti in Tripoli. Rather, with oil prices climbing, Trump and Rubio should partner and promote Benghazi, rather than continue U.S. efforts to undermine him for an Obama and UN fantasy. A Secure Libya is in everyone’s interest, and a Benghazi-first strategy can deliver it.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is the director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
