Libya

3 conflicts · 2001–2026

$91.5B

Total US Spending

3

Conflicts

50

US Deaths

Troops Stationed

52,500

Civilian Deaths

0

Authorized

3

Unauthorized

📖 History of US Involvement in Libya

The 2011 NATO intervention in Libya destroyed a government without building a replacement. Libya went from having Africa's highest Human Development Index to being a failed state with open-air slave markets within five years. Obama called it his "worst mistake." Weapons from Libyan arsenals fueled conflicts across North Africa and the Sahel. The intervention's "success" convinced Russia and China to veto similar resolutions for Syria — contributing to hundreds of thousands more deaths.

US Conflicts Involving This Country

🗣️ What They Said

Let us not become the evil that we deplore.

Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), the sole vote against the 2001 AUMF (September 14, 2001) (GWOT (Other))

He should have had a more responsible father.

Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary, when asked about the drone killing of 16-year-old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki (Drone Wars)

Probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya.

President Barack Obama, when asked his 'worst mistake' (2016) (Libya)