The Cautious and The Wise

Ian Jack, one of the very best in the business, writes:

 

Several hundred Libyan army cadets invited to the UK for training are being sent home from their Cambridgeshire barracks after scenes of such violent disorder that the Ministry of Defence has drafted in the Royal Highland Fusiliers “to bolster security and reassure the local population”.

 

Two recruits have pleaded guilty to assaulting women in Cambridge; another two have been charged with raping a man in a park; local reports suggest barracks cleaners have been molested and the local supermarket emptied of vodka.

 

A scheme that was intended to train 2,000 troops to “help build a safe and stable Libya” has now been abandoned, although not before some of the first batch – unconfirmed reports suggest 20 – applied for political asylum.

As well they might. To quote the BBC website: “Libya has been in a state of flux since Colonel Gaddafi was overthrown … the country is divided between two rival governments, with disparate tribes, militias and political factions fighting for power.”

 

In the past few weeks, more than 200 people have been killed in Benghazi, where Islamist fighters control large parts of the city and assassinations are routine. Islamists have declared another coastal city, Derna, as a caliphate.

 

The country’s internationally recognised government quit Tripoli, the capital, in July and is now camped out in Tobruk, handily placed for the Egyptian border, should the government need to leave in a hurry.

How many foresaw this when RAF Tornados were helping to obliterate the Gaddafi regime, AKA “protecting Libya’s civilian population”?

 

Judging by the record of the parliamentary debate on Britain’s involvement, very few.

 

“This is different to Iraq,” Cameron told the Commons on 21 March, 2011. “This is not going into a country and knocking over its government, and then owning and being responsible for everything that happens subsequently.”

 

The last 11 words are certainly true.

Only 15 MPs voted against a motion that committed Britain to “UN-backed action”.

 

From the Tories, John Baron; from Labour, Graham Allen, Ronnie Campbell, Jeremy Corbyn, Barry Gardiner, Roger Godsiff, John McDonnell, Linda Riordan, Dennis Skinner, Mike Wood, Katy Clark, Yasmin Qureshi; from the SDLP: Mark Durkan and Margaret Ritchie; and Caroline Lucas, the Greens’ only MP.

 

If there could be an anti-war memorial, or simply a monument to the cautious and the wise, these names would certainly be on it.