Post-Gadhafi Libya in chaos

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Growing violence and destruction have marked Libya’s collapse as a nation since the United States intervened alongside the resistance to the rule of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

What has happened since is causing Libya to become a poster child for the virtues of dictatorial rule in maintaining order. Other candidates for that dubious honor include Egypt, Iraq and Syria as well as some African countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali.

Libyans have destroyed the last major airport in the capital, Tripoli. Oil production, the backbone of the economy and the desert country’s only asset, has become chaotic, in terms of production and marketing.

Now, an American general is claiming that forces of the Islamic State, which has replaced al-Qaida as America’s favorite enemy, are training in the east of Libya. This could be true. ... On the other hand, the general may just be preparing Congress and the American people for another expensive U.S. military intervention.

That would be another mistake, comparable to the first U.S. foray into Libya, to the third U.S. intervention in Iraq now underway and to President Barack Obama’s extension of America’s military presence in Afghanistan by a year, without approval from Congress or a way to pay for the operations.