Let’s remember Obama and Libya
Plus, the new “battle” for Gettysburg
It’s a Friday in July in Washington, D.C., and I’m heading out of town for a couple days. Destination: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, with all its history and hiking trails, the site of the first federal armory, John Brown’s lunatic raid, a Civil War battle fought in 1862, and many major floods.
So I will keep this week’s newsletter relatively brief. We all need a break – I from writing, you from reading a lengthy missive.
Obama and Libya
After Israel and then the United States bombed Iran in mid-June in violation of the U.N. Charter, risking war with the ayatollahs’ regime, I decided to produce several podcasts covering the conflict’s complexities and relevant recent history. The final such episode, Obama and Libya, was published on Tuesday.
The Iran bombing raised several serious questions about executive war powers and the unintended consequences of military interventionism – a warning U.S. decision-makers should have long absorbed by now. Mercifully, the Trump administration has thus far averted escalation, as the president publicly scolded the Israelis and Iranians into accepting a cease-fire he announced unilaterally on social media. “They don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,” said the miffed American president.
These questions matter nonetheless. Where was Congress? What about the War Powers Act? What if Iran had chosen major escalation rather than a face-saving exit ramp?
In Tuesday’s episode, historian Jeremi Suri and I took a deep dive into President Barack Obama’s decision to intervene in Libya’s civil war in 2011. Although the sets of circumstances are different – the Libya intervention was initially on humanitarian grounds, while the Iran bombing was an unprovoked act of coercion – the above questions apply to both cases.
The commander-in-chief of history’s most lethal, sophisticated war machine can start or intervene in wars in ways past leaders only could have dreamt. In other words, American presidential war-making is too easy, and Congress refuses to assert its prerogatives.
In February-March 2011, after first resisting intervention, President Obama was convinced by top aides to lead a NATO mission to bomb dictator Muammar Gadhafi’s forces as they closed in on the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. The stated reason was to prevent a massacre of Libyan civilians, not to overthrow Gadhafi’s wretched regime. Soon enough, however, it became a regime change mission. Rebels murdered Gadhafi in October 2011 as the country fell to pieces. Islamic State militants soon established a presence.
Fourteen years later, Libya remains a failed state whose internationally recognized government does not control all its national territory. According to Freedom House,
“Libya has been racked by internal divisions and intermittent civil conflict since a popular armed uprising in 2011 deposed longtime dictator Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi. International efforts to bring rival administrations together in a unity government have repeatedly failed, preventing long-overdue elections. The proliferation of weapons and autonomous militias, flourishing criminal networks, interference by regional powers, and the presence of extremist groups have all contributed to a persistent lack of physical security.”
In the closing days of his presidency, Obama admitted Libya was his biggest regret, although not the intervention itself and resulting regime change. He regretted not doing more to help stabilize Libya after Gadhafi’s exit.
“Unfortunately, we’ve come to a point post-Vietnam, post-War Powers Resolution, where Congress has been unable and unwilling to provide any guideposts to limit the president’s ability to send force – massive force – around the globe with barely any consultation at all. Democrats and Republicans have both been guilty of this,” Suri says.
“We’re also in an era of threat inflation. Whenever this is done, whether it’s Obama in Libya or Trump in Iran, the claim is made that it’s essential for national security,” says Suri, an expert on U.S. domestic and foreign policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
In the podcast episode, there are audio clips of Congress members delivering speeches about how the president ignored the Constitution and abused his war powers. Without knowing the context, you might have thought these excerpts were pulled from any number of congressional debates going back more than 30 years. Congress was sidelined. The mission is not in our national interest. Mission creep is real. We haven’t learned the lessons of Vietnam.
In the end, however, Congress did not muster the votes to end the Libya adventure. The administration claimed the U.S.-led NATO mission did not meet the definition of hostilities anyway!
Discussed in the episode with historian Jeremi Suri: origins of Gadhafi’s regime; his support for terrorism; 2003 decision to surrender nuclear program; causes of 2011 uprising and Arab Spring; whether Obama followed the War Powers Act; definition of hostilities and legal acrobatics; shadow of Rwanda; U.S. addiction to primacy; and much else.
The new “battle” for Gettysburg
In President Trump’s hurricane of executive orders, the one in March to restore “truth and sanity to American history” was signed with no fanfare. There was no press conference or Oval Office photo op.
The executive order targets the Smithsonian, national parks, and upcoming America250 commemorations.
“In the last decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted effort to rewrite American history and force our nation to adopt a factually baseless ideology aimed at diminishing American achievement. President Trump is fighting back by reestablishing truth in the historical narrative and restoring Federal sites dedicated to American heritage,” the order states.
The executive order is the right-wing backlash to leftist overreach, real or perceived. After The 1619 Project popularized a cynical, pseudo-historical interpretation of America and slavery, scholars from across the political spectrum correctly excoriated it. But then came the summer of 2020 and the police murder of George Floyd, nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, the tearing down of Confederate statues and monuments, and the rise of DEI. Some went further, attacking statues of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.
But as I said to historian Kevin Levin in today’s podcast episode, I’ve never seen a “divisive ideology… infecting revered institutions like the Smithsonian and national parks with false narratives,” to cite the language in Trump’s preposterous executive order. Besides, the answer to left-wing indoctrination would not be right-wing indoctrination.
If there are false narratives at Gettysburg, you’ll find them in the Lost Cause mythology etched into the Southern state monuments, such as North Carolina’s. However, as Levin points out, a wayside marker places this monument in its historical context. It was erected in 1929. The monument’s purpose is less about 1860s battlefield heroism than Jim Crow-era white supremacy — important context provided by the marker.
I visit Gettysburg almost every summer. It is a sobering experience to walk the battlefields and reflect on what it must have looked and sounded like in early July 1863. The wayside markers, statues, monuments, and memorials – both Union and Confederate – enrich the experience. The tour guides are professional and informed. There is no indoctrination going on!
Kevin Levin writes the Civil War Memory newsletter on Substack. He has been closely following this story since the executive order in March. A review process was supposed to lead to changes at museums and national parks where MAGA sensibilities might be offended.
Levin isn’t worried only about statues and monuments. He says the National Park Service itself is facing a staffing and morale crisis triggered by the administration’s draconian budget cuts. Who would aspire to be a park ranger when the Trump clique holds federal employees in such low esteem?
What’s next?
Coming up in Tuesday’s episode of History As It Happens, renowned political theorist Robert Keohane will talk about President Trump, soft power, and the “end of the American Century,” the subject of his essay in Foreign Affairs. It was co-authored with fellow theorist Joseph Nye, who died suddenly in May.
Coming up on Friday: to be determined! In next week’s newsletter, I will share some photos of my trip to beautiful Harpers Ferry.