I want to introduce a new classification of criminal: crisis criminal. It includes both war criminals, since war is a crisis, and people that deliberately destabilize a nation, causing a humanitarian crisis. I made this new classification because, in their effects on people, deliberately caused humanitarian crises are not far removed from wars, but we didn’t have a term for people that deliberately cause humanitarian crises.

Humanitarian crises force people flee their homes, livelihoods and everything that they worked for all their lives. In many cases, they can never return to try to rebuild what they lost, because the government turned misanthropic, and no longer values human beings. Or maybe they are too broke to travel anywhere. We don’t call that war. But what is so different? Both the lifespan and quality of life of the average displaced person is decreased significantly, in some cases drastically. They are severely economically wounded. They may never recover.

Here we were going to play a game, Guess the crisis criminal.

It’s simple. I describe the incident and some of its effects. You guess the biggest crisis criminal. There may be more than one crisis criminal involved. I am looking for the biggest one only.

Here we go:

In 2011, the Obama Administration organized an Arab Spring protest against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. It lasted at least eighteen days, during which some 300 pro-democracy protesters were killed, most by government forces. The organizers claimed that Mubarak was criminally brutal toward the protesters. Mubarak was an autocrat, and was indeed brutal in some instances. He also kept order in Egypt, had good relations with Israel, and was tolerant of religions besides Islam, even of Christian ones. Eventually, he resigned, the Muslim Brotherhood took power in Egypt, and Mubarak was charged with corruption and abuse of power.

Under the Muslim Brotherhood, Christian Copts suffered. At least 300,000 of them were forced to flee Egypt, becoming refugees. Many of their buildings and Shrines were torched. The people of Egypt suffered, because of the fanaticism of the Brotherhood.

Who’s the biggest crisis criminal?

“Obviously Mike, Mubarak was. He was an autocrat, and killed pro-democracy protesters.”

Wrong. Let’s try again.

Remember Iraq? Christians there suffered, because, in 2012, President Obama withdrew our troops carelessly, allowing ISIS to take over many cities there that U.S. servicemen had fought to secure. ISIS massacred Iraqi Yezidis and Christians, crucifying many. They raped Christian women.

Who’s the biggest crisis criminal?

“Obviously, Mike, it was ISIS. What a bunch of Neanderthals.”

Wrong. Think: How was ISIS enabled to take Iraqi cities and commit war crimes? Let’s try again. And please, no more insults to Neanderthals:

On March 19, 2011, the Obama Administration approved airstrikes against Libya. According to Politico, “Obama said the military action sought to save the lives of peaceful, pro-democracy protesters who found themselves the target of a crackdown by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.”

Gaddafi’s actual title was, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council.

Politico quoted Alan J. Kuperman, a University of Texas Associate Professor of Foreign Affairs. He wrote four years later in Foreign Affairs:

Not only did Gaddafi endanger the momentum of the nascent Arab Spring, which had recently swept away authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, but he also was poised to commit a bloodbath in the Libyan city where the uprising had started.

And Politico quoted President Obama:

We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi—a city nearly the size of Charlotte—could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world. ...

Without putting a single U.S. service member on the ground, we achieved our objectives. ...

The United States and the world faced a choice. Gadhafi declared he would show ‘no mercy’ to his own people. He compared them to rats and threatened to go door to door to inflict punishment. In the past, we have seen him hang civilians in the streets, and kill over a thousand people in a single day.

It was not in our national interest to let that [massacre] happen. I refused to let that happen.

At the same time, there are numerous pages, such as this one, praising Gaddafi for all the good that he did for Libyans, and how great a place Libya was under his government.

Chairman Gaddafi became a fugitive. After months on the run, he was found and gunned-down. After his murder, crimes of all kinds skyrocketed. Politico again quoted Kuperman:

In retrospect, Obama’s intervention in Libya was an abject failure, judged even by its own standards. Libya has not only failed to evolve into a democracy; it has devolved into a failed state. Violent deaths and other human rights abuses have increased severalfold.

Rather than helping the United States combat terrorism, as Gadhafi did during his last decade in power, Libya [began to serve] as a safe haven for militias affiliated with both al-Qaida and the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS). The Libya intervention has harmed other U.S. interests as well: undermining nuclear nonproliferation, chilling Russian cooperation at the U.N., and fueling Syria’s civil war.

Libya eventually descended into civil war and anarchy, with various Islamist groups vying for power. No one wanted to live there. Many fled to Europe, risking their lives in open boats to cross the Med. Here are some stats on Libya from the Council of Foreign Relations’ global conflict tracker, updated March 17, 2022:

As a result of the continued fighting, the UN Refugee Agency estimates that more than 217,000 people have been internally displaced and approximately 1.3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Libya.

The CFR says that the “conflict status” is “unchanging”. In other words, Libya is unstable to this day.

Who’s the biggest crisis criminal?

“Well Mike, it looks like Muammar Gaddafi was the biggest criminal. He killed peaceful, pro-democracy demonstrators. And seeing that the Obama Administration intervened, surely Gaddafi was the biggest bad guy.”

Wrong again! Let’s try another:

Here are excerpts from the britannica.com article on the Syrian civil war:

In March 2011 Syria’s government, led by Pres. Bashar al-Assad, faced an unprecedented challenge to its authority when pro-democracy protests erupted throughout the country. Protesters demanded an end to the authoritarian practices of the Assad regime, in place since Assad’s father, Ḥafiz al-Assad, became president in 1971. The Syrian government used violence to suppress demonstrations, making extensive use of police, military, and paramilitary forces. Opposition militias began to form in 2011, and by 2012 the conflict had expanded into a full-fledged civil war. ...

The United States and the European Union were increasingly critical of Assad as his crackdown continued, and U.S. Pres. Barack Obama and several European heads of state called for him to step down in August 2011. An anti-Assad bloc consisting of Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia formed in the last half of 2011. The United States, the EU, and the Arab League soon introduced sanctions targeting senior members of the Assad regime.

What began as protests against President Assad’s regime in 2011 quickly escalated into a full-scale war between the Syrian government—backed by Russia and Iran—and anti-government rebel groups—backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and others in the region.

Syria has been a mess ever since. ISIS invaded Syria from its new strongholds in Iraq. After that, some nations intervened directly. The CFR’s Global Conflict Tracker of the Syrian civil war gives these stats, as of March 17, 2022:

According to estimates by the United Nations, more than 400,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the war. The UN reports that, as of January 2019, more than 5.6 million have fled the country, and over 6 million have been internally displaced. Many refugees have fled to Jordan and Lebanon, straining already weak infrastructure and limited resources. More than 3.4 million Syrians have fled to Turkey, and many have attempted to seek refuge in Europe.

According to the CFR, the status of the civil war there is “unchanging”.

Before the civil war that resulted from pro-democracy demonstrations, Syria under Assad was stable and relatively peaceful. Assad was tolerant of religions besides Islam. Some of the oldest Churches in East were in Syria, before ISIS destroyed them. Assad was brutal at times, because guess what? You cannot have the tolerance for Christianity that Bashar Assad and other autocrats managed, without countering at least some of its brutal enemies.

Bashar Assad remains the Syrian President today, despite efforts by both Western nations and terrorist organizations to depose or kill him. They still want to kill him.

Who’s the crisis criminal, the biggest one?

“Well Mike, Assad is an autocrat, and was brutal toward pro-democracy demonstrators. Looks to me like he started the whole thing, and is the biggest crisis criminal.”

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