Coburn said the most important thing is to learn from the mistakes
of the past, and endeavor not to repeat them. This means not pursuing
"regime change" in Syria, but working with the Syrian government, and
Russia, in order to maintain stable government and power vacuum for
terrorists to take hold of.
"The Americans under the new President-elect Trump do seem to be
engaging with the Russians over these matters and I think we should be
too, we should start behaving more sensibly," Coburn said.
In September, the UK parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee published
its report on the UK's foreign policy in Libya before, during and after
the 2011 intervention. In the damning report, the committee said that
the UK, which proposed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973
along with France and Lebanon, didn't carry out a proper intelligence
analysis before intervening in Libya.
The Security Council resolution authorized member states to
establish and enforce a no-fly zone over Libya and to use "all necessary
measures" to prevent attacks on civilians, but it did not authorize the
deployment of ground forces, or address the issue of toppling the
government.
Despite that, the Foreign Affairs Committee report found that "a limited
intervention to protect civilians drifted into a policy of regime
change by military means."
MP's said that the UK should have pursued political means to
resolve the conflict in Libya, for example by exploiting former Prime
Minister Tony Blair's personal relationship with Gaddafi.
They also criticized the government for failing to provide for the
country's reconstruction after the intervention. The UK, which spent
some £320 million on bombing Libya, spent just under half as much money
(48.72%) on rebuilding the country.