As Trump Admin Targets Hamas and Iran: How Trump Played Gaddafi

Dave DeCamp, who writes at AntiWar.com and does their invaluable daily news summary, notes the following in “Netanyahu Says Iran Deal Would Work Only If Nuclear Facilities Are ‘Blown Up’” —

“We agree that Iran will not have nuclear weapons. This can be done by agreement, but only if this agreement is Libyan-style: They go in, blow up the installations, dismantle all of the equipment under American supervision and carried out by America—this would be good,” Netanyahu said in a video statement a day after meeting with President Trump.

Netanyahu’s mention of Libya refers to when former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi agreed to dismantle his nuclear weapons program in 2003 and allowed inspectors to verify his progress. Only eight years later, in 2011, Gaddafi was brutally killed by US-backed militants after a NATO airstrike hit his convoy amid a US-NATO bombing campaign.

President Trump has previously criticized John Bolton, his former national security advisor, for suggesting a “Libya-style” model for disarming North Korea back in 2018. “What would Bolton, one of the dumbest people in Washington, know? Wasn’t he the person who so stupidly said, on television, ‘Libyan solution,’ when describing what the US was going to do for North Korea? I’ve got plenty of other Bolton ‘stupid stories,'” Trump said in a 2020 tweet.

It’s an important chapter that I think of often and it’s critical to stress that Trump called Bolton “one of the dumbest people in Washington” for talking about his intention “on television”.

Trump wasn’t objecting to the possibility of stabbing North Korea in the back, he was reprimanding Bolton for doing it ineptly. It’s not clear if Trump views Netanyahu (aka Mileikowsky) as equally buffoonish.

There is an additional chapter to the Trump-Gaddafi story. Trump actually hosted Gaddafi in 2009 when the Libyan leader spoke to the UN in New York —

Gaddafi was dismissed by US establishment media as giving a “rambling, conspiracy-theory-filled speech delivered at the U.N.” Parts of it are totally inaccurate, but if you look at it, it talks about the possible Israeli connections to the JFK assassination, as well as the assassinations of Khalil al-Wazir, Lumumba, and Hammarskjöld. He also warned of viruses being “created in a laboratory” — i.e., “gain-of-function” lab work that was the likely cause of Covid. (text, video). (There were also all kinds of machinations between Tony Blair and the Gaddafis.)

These contacts with Trump and Blair likely caused Gaddafi to have his guard down, leading to his ouster and bloody assassination, celebrated by official Washington including Rubio:

Recalling Trump’s role in manipulating Gaddafi was part of why I saw Trump from an early stage as “Trump is the Opposable Thumb of the Establishment” though I didn’t mention that example.

This is an important chapter to keep in mind now that Trump is touting what he claims are “direct” talks with Iran.

Recall that the Trump administration had seemingly “unprecedented” direct talks with Hamas in early March.

As previously noted, the Trump administration, working with the Biden administration, implemented a ceasefire to get Gaza off the front pages with the inauguration. And now, with minimal media coverage, imperial Israel is ramping up its genocide.

Additionally, recall my piece of 2023: “Should Hamas Release Its Captives? In 1990, Saddam Hussein listened to those advising he release captives he had. He did so. Within a few weeks, the disaster really began for Iraq.”

The US establishment with Israel clearly have the worst of plans for the people of the region: