When former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sought to return to the premiership, President Donald Trump was quick with a veto. “Last time Maliki was in power, the Country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again,” he posted on Truth Social, warning the United States would cut off Iraq if Maliki persisted.
It was no bluff. Multiple U.S. presidents tolerated Iran-backed Iraqi militias, even when they contributed to the murders of Americans. Trump refused to play by the same playbook. During his first term, he killed Iranian Qods Force Chief Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia head Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, just days after the Kataib Hezbollah militias fired 30 rockets into an Iraqi air base, killing a U.S. contractor. Maliki was wise to stand down, lest he face the same fate or follow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s path into a U.S. prison. More recently, Trump raised the pressure further by freezing Iraq’s access to its dollars held by the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.
The irony, however, is that while the Trump administration turns the screws on Iraq, both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promote a militia-based government in Libya.
Following the 2011 fall of Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, Islamist militias filled the vacuum. Distance insulated Americans from that reality until the 2012 murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens at the hands of radical, Qatar and Turkey-backed militias in Benghazi. Libyan National Army leader Khalifa Haftar, a secular, Qadhafi-era general, then launched Operation Dignity to clear out Ansar al-Sharia and the Islamic State from Libya. Benghazi today is safe and secure due to the sacrifice of those following Haftar. The Libyan Armed Forces today secure more than 70% of the country, including the country’s oil fields and export terminals. Last month, the U.S. military returned to Sirte as part of the annual Flintlock exercises.
Not all of Libya is secure. While the Libyan Armed Forces have cleansed their region of militias, the remnants of Ansar al-Sharia and the Islamic State have found a safe haven in and around Tripoli. When Haftar sought to finish the job in June 2020, Turkey sent drones to its Tripoli proxies, with devastating effect.
The State Department says it supports the Tripoli government because it is internationally recognized. This is circular logic that both elides its arbitrariness and protects Islamist militias. Few U.S. diplomats remember that Islamists lost Libya’s elections badly but then refused to accept their results. Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry urged national dialogue, essentially throwing a lifeline to extremists. Recognizing Tripoli sent the message that Islamists could leverage bombs and beheadings to win recognition when they failed at the ballot box.
Today, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh holds the title of prime minister in Tripoli, but locals mock him as a new Baghdad Bob, prone to bluster and conspiracy. Dbeibeh cannot cross the street without Turkey’s approval. Real authority rests with Sheikh Sadiq Al-Ghariani, the grand mufti, who protects fugitives wanted in Stevens’ death and gives sustenance to the Islamic State. While Trump Special Envoy Massad Boulos talks unity for Libya, the Mufti undermines him. Late last month, the Mufti declared, “The revolutionaries must take to the square, threaten, and reject the unification of the military institution — this is a time for jihad.”
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Herein lies the irony. While Trump is right to crack down on Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, his own State Department is doubling down on policies inherited from Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to empower militias in Libya.
By any criteria — security, energy, or local legitimacy — Boulos and the State Department’s embrace of Dbeibeh and the Mufti makes no sense. By all means, unity in Libya should be the goal, but to achieve it, Washington should respect both power and principle and work toward the integration of the armed forces, not the empowerment of imposed politicians and the militias and terrorists they protect.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.