Libyans skeptical of Clinton's regret on military intervention in Iraq: experts

The recent statement of U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has met with great skepticism in Libya, especially her regret for the 2003 intervention in Iraq, according to Libyan officials.

On Thursday Clinton announced in a press statement that voting for the Iraq war was "the biggest political regret."

The "greatest regret was voting to give President (George W.) Bush authority in Iraq," Clinton said. "It did not turn out the way I thought it would based on what he had said, and I regret that, and I've said that it was a mistake and obviously it's something that, you know, I wish hadn't turned out the way it did."

"The recent statement of Clinton is nothing but political advocacy for her voters," said Atef Badri, a former Libyan diplomat.

He believes this apology and regret for the military campaign that led to the destruction of Iraq will not change the "ugly face" on Washington's foreign policy.

The former diplomat said when Clinton was a prominent senator in 2002, she strongly advocated for a military campaign that was apparently aimed to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime.

"However, the hidden side of her support to the campaign was to destroy Iraq's scientific capabilities and infrastructure. The world saw how fancy the U.S. air force was in destroying the government offices, factories, and bridges," Badri added.

"This is a strong evidence that Clinton's regret is not honest," Badri concluded, attributing it to the "U.S. greed for the wealth ..., especially Arab and Islamic countries."

Jalal Fitori, a professor of law, shares Badri's point of view on Clinton's remarks. He stresses that "the fierce competition of Donald Trump, the strongest candidate to win the U.S. presidency, makes her resort to sympathy through the media with the American voters, who are controlled by the media."

Fitori told Xinhua that Clinton, in her memoirs published almost two years ago, showed a similar position of remorse, and that she "was not the only one who made a mistake," referring to her support for the military campaign led by former President Bush in the Iraq.

"She considered that the network of public relations and media, which leads the former Foreign Secretary's campaign, asked her to repeat this regret, for this might show to the American voters that she rejects any future interventions in the internal affairs of countries," said Fitori.

Laila Khalifa, a human rights activist, said the United States, the so-called "policeman who leads the world," does not back down on any of its provocative methods.

"The American society has the highest level of crime and violence, in addition to drugs and weapons trading across the border and the highest rates of inflation internationally," Khalifa said, but it is "trying to convince the world that it needs to reform its social and political systems."

Khalifa demanded that Clinton apologize to her people for the case of the hatred caused by American leaders throughout the ages.

"Most of the people of the world hate arrogance by which the U.S. leaders look at the rest of the peoples of the world. They consider them to be backwards and undemocratic, while many peoples enjoy security and stability Washington does not enjoy without a capitalist system that devastates many countries that follows it," Khalifa said.

The United States led a military campaign in 2003 against Iraq and toppled the late former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's rule. Years later, many Iraqis were killed and wounded in a civil war, while the country has become a haven for militant extremism. Endit