Speaking to The Atlantic, Obama acknowledged the problems faced by Libya since the fall of Gaddafi in 2011, referring to the situation as a "mess" - and in private as a "s**t show."
"...We actually executed this plan as well as I could have expected: We got a UN mandate, we built a coalition, it cost us $1 billion โ which, when it comes to military operations, is very cheap. We averted large-scale civilian casualties, we prevented what almost surely would have been a prolonged and bloody civil conflict. And despite all that, Libya is a mess," he said.
Comment: Does Obama have any real idea of what he is talking about? The US created the "bloody civil conflict" in the first place and then proudly claims they "prevented" it. Now Libya is worse than before the interventions.
He went on to state that the 'mess' was largely due to the inaction of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was "distracted by a range of other things" at the time.
He also criticized France's then-President Nicolas Sarkozy for being too eager to take credit for the intervention to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.
"Sarkozy wanted to trumpet the flights he was taking in the air campaign," Obama said, "despite the fact that [the US] had wiped out all the air defenses and essentially set up the entire infrastructure."
Obama said that such bragging on the part of Sarkozy was fine, because it allowed the US to "purchase France's involvement in a way that made it less expensive for us and less risky for us."
There was just one problem with that plan, according to the US president.
"From the perspective of a lot of the folks in the foreign-policy establishment, well, that was terrible. If we're going to do something, obviously we've got to be up front, and nobody else is sharing in the spotlight," he said, noting that Sarkozy was voted out of office less than a year after the fall of Gaddafi.
But Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, told RT that although Cameron and Sarkozy are also responsible for the chaos in Libya, Obama is the "major responsible figure."
"I believe Obama realized that it was a huge mistake and miscalculation, and he is trying to blame everybody else except himself," he said, adding that such a move by an American president is "unprecedented."
He went on to stress that the current situation in Libya is "much, much worse than it used to be during the Gaddafi regime."
"It is a huge mess there, bloodshed, a failed state, militia controlling most of the country. Also now, Islamic State has more than 7,000 fighters in Libya," he said.
The West "deposed Gaddafi, and they left. And after that, who took over? The militia. Armed militia...the whole region, North Africa, is destabilized because of the British and American and French intervention. How can we solve it? It may be too late now. Libya is dismantled completely, Libya is a tribal country now, a militia country, so it's not a state anymore," Atwan concluded.
'Free riders'
Speaking more generally on what he calls a "free rider" mentality in times of conflict, Obama explained that EU countries have had a "habit" of pushing the US to act over the past several decades, but then shown "an unwillingness to put any skin in the game."
The US president went on to stress that "free riders aggravate me."
"When I go back and I ask myself what went wrong," Obama said, "there's room for criticism, because I had more faith in the Europeans, given Libya's proximity, being invested in the follow-up."
Obama recently stood up to 'free rider' Cameron, warning that the UK would no longer be able to maintain its so-called "special relationship" with the US if it did not commit to spending at least 2 percent of its GDP on defense.
"You have to pay your fair share," the US president told his British counterpart at the G7 summit in June 2015. Cameron subsequently met the 2 percent threshold.
But Obama didn't place all the blame on Cameron and Sarkozy. He admitted that the "degree of tribal division in Libya was greater than our analysts had expected. And our ability to have any kind of structure there that we could interact with and start training and start providing resources broke down very quickly."
Speaking to a former colleague in the US Senate recently, Obama declared that the outcome of Libya was enough evidence to show him that "there is no way we should commit to governing the Middle East and North Africa...that would be a basic, fundamental mistake."
Libya has been consumed by violence since the 2011 NATO-led campaign to topple Gaddafi, with rival governments and armed groups fighting for control of the oil-rich North African country. It has become a key operating base for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). A UN report published Thursday said that IS had "significantly expanded" the amount of territory it controls in the country.
Meanwhile, there have been reports that the UK is mulling the possibility of stepping up its involvement in the country amid fears that its campaign against IS in Syria and Iraq needs to be widened to include Libya.
Responding to Obama's comments to the Atlantic, a British government spokesperson said: "I think we would share the President of the United States' assessment that there are real challenges in Libya, that's why we are continuing to work hard with our international partners to support a process in Libya that puts in place a government that can bring stability to that country and why we are talking about how we can support such a government in the future," as cited by the British media.
Such is the nature and the gap between conscious presentation and undercurrent realities - and the disconnect of both of those in relation what truly Is.
In this world there is the instance of a hypnotized or otherwise traumatized and reconstructed 'mind-control' subject - who operates a specific personality aspect while carrying the latency of other personality aspects that can be triggered by specific instructions.
This is a replica of what human consciousness already is - in its fragmented and conflicted sense of split off personae masking undercurrent guilt and fear of pain or loss.
Everyone Else can see what the US - which is itself a puppet of powerful cartels and lobbies - is up to but those who spin in their own narrative. They thus seem to be evil or at least liars who speak freedom while denying it to others. But if one reacts to them - or anyone in such a situation - from a self righteous attack upon them - they find reinforcement in their own narrative spin by seeing such a one as 'threat' - instead of a messenger or valuable feedback.
The primary Imprinting that is undercurrent to human consciousness and relationships was traumatic and involves mis-identifications or partial truths taken as exclusively true. We each and all carry different and dynamically related 'fragments' of such Imprinting.
Some of us are less heavily invested or identified in the fear-driven 'survival' mentality that is triggered to re-enact its past without recognition or perspective on that this is happening, and because we have moments of such awareness we also grow a capacity to 'heal the gap' by truly embracing emotional honesty rather than being run by denied emotional energy aka unconsciously compromised narrative.
Accepting healing (rather than merely associating with rationalities or modalities about healing) opens a quality of presence and communication that operates directly to a wholeness of being whilst finding the forms that willingness allows.
The primary diversion from prior wholeness is a self-rejection projected away onto Other. The force of this is the force of a self hate that has been misidentified or 'split off from'. We recognize the vibrational nature of what is moving by its resonance in ourself - if we are aligned and opened in our feeling of discernment. Denial evokes a like reaction. Becoming conscious of or noticing what is happening 'in our name' is a step to uncovering our own trigger-points. This is similar to finding back-doors or trojans by which we are hacked, compromised and 'infected' - so as to close them and release or sweep out what does not belong. This is 'inner work' from which we meet a different outer reflection. It is not inner work to coerce or manipulate a different outcome in outer reflection.
Anyone who lives their true willingness to embrace Life rather than reactively assert a substitution of their own mind-spin is growing perspective in Everyone - as it can meet and find a like willingness that was in a sense 'waiting' on release from a falsely framed subconscious identification.
The devices of deceit can be studied as ways to empower deceit - rather than a true recognition in which Who you are stands clear because who you are not can no longer pass off as true. Truth is not a warrior - but in standing in and witnessing your core integrity - you embody it. The primary Imprinting of separation conflict and identity trauma is disguised by personae but when that disguise breaks down, what it concealed is revealed current. We have to uncover willingness within the triggered state of fear or hate by not letting them choose us - which may call for embracing the feelings without fuelling with judgement and reaction. Anger can serve inner alignment and fear can evacuate unneeded baggage. They are not in themselves negative - but what we use them - or anything - for, is what gives them the meaning they hold for us.
Beware the fascination with conflict, evil and horror. For what we give attention to we feed and attract and make welcome - regardless what our surface mind asserts.