Originally Posted by
Asturias56
The UK? Totally irrelevant in this fight...................
I agree, but that's only as a consequence of being between a rock and a hard place. The UK (like other European states) does have a direct interest in ending conflict in Libya, which is to have a stable government with which to cooperate against people-smuggling. Trouble is, it can't make up it's mind whether to support the UN-recognised Islamist government or its Saudi/UAE/Egyptian/Russian-backed secular opponents. Explicitly supporting the latter would undermine (yet again) the conceit that the West seeks to uphold the international system against Russian and Chinese subversion. Explicitly supporting the former would seriously p*ss off a prime export customer and regional partner, and frankly I suspect there is very little enthusiasm in Whitehall for supporting Islamists, however legitimate. So staying out of it is the strategically logical thing to do. As it was (or should have been) with Syria. And Libya the first time. And...