State Department urges US citizens to immediately leave Libya, which is kind of a mess

Brett T. | 5:04 PM on June 09, 2016

When President Obama returned to Elkhart, Ind., earlier this month to tout the progress his administration has made on the economy, he was asked what one thing he would go back and change if he could.

Libya, the president answered, confessing that he personally “did a little too much counting on other countries to then stabilize and help support government formation,” concluding, “Now it’s kind of a mess.”

Pres also unhappy with outcome in Libya. "I did a little too much of counting on other countries…and now it's kind of a mess."

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 2, 2016

Counting too much on other countries to help? Once again, someone else has let him down and made him look bad.

Obama: ‘I relied too much on other countries to support govt formation in Libya, now it’s kind of a mess’ https://t.co/fInlQNgpAt

— RT (@RT_com) June 2, 2016

Libya had served for a while as one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s success stories, but these days she’s more likely to cite her clean cookstove initiative than the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi when asked about her tenure with State.

Obama’s characterization of Libya as “kind of a mess” was amplified today by the State Department, which posted a travel alert urging American citizens to get out, now.

Updated travel warning for #Libya-we warn US citizens against all travel to Libya & urge US cits in Libya to depart. https://t.co/jqgjuAdPCp

— Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) June 9, 2016

https://twitter.com/OswaldRachel/status/741000476968255489

The State Department’s site, updated Thursday, now reads (emphasis ours):

On July 26, 2014 the U.S. Embassy suspended operations in Libya. The Department of State has extremely limited capacity to assist U.S. citizens in Libya.

Government authorities lack control over much of the country, and local police and security services may have limited to no capacity to respond to emergencies or requests for assistance. Crime levels remain high, including the threat of kidnapping, and various groups have called for attacks against U.S. citizens and U.S. interests in Libya. Hotels frequented by westerners have been attacked by armed groups and terrorists. Violent extremist activity in Libya remains high. Foreigners may be targeted by violent extremist groups seeking to injure, kidnap or kill anyone associated with the United States.

That really does sound like kind of a mess.

For the record, Clinton is a little less hard on herself than President Obama, having told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews at a town hall in March that while Libya certainly isn’t in perfect shape, at least the United States didn’t lose a single person there.