MPs attack Cameron [and Sarkozy] over Libya ’collapse’ - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37356873
the criticism is weighty: the government’s poor intelligence about the threat to civilians in Benghazi, its lack of awareness of Islamist elements among the rebels, the policy drift from saving lives to getting rid of Gaddafi, and David Cameron’s lack of strategy for what should happen next.
The subtext is that the lessons of Iraq were ignored.
(...)
Crispin Blunt, chairman of the committee, told the BBC: "We were dragged along by a French enthusiasm to intervene, and the mission then moved from protecting people in Benghazi, who arguably were not at the kind of threat that was then being presented...
“Indeed, on the basis of the evidence we took, the threat to the people of Benghazi was grossly overstated.”
The committee said “political options” were available once Benghazi had been secured - including through ex-PM Tony Blair’s contacts with Gaddafi - but the UK government “focused exclusively on military intervention”.
