A Look At Libya and Ghaddafi
Interesting look at what happened to Libya and Ghaddafi from Eric Margolis who knew Ghaddafi and seems to have spent some time in that country. This week marks the 5th anniversary of Ghaddafi's killing:
"Western special forces intervened behind the cover of a popular uprising. Khadaffi’s rag tag forces quickly collapsed and rebel groups seized power, murdering Khadaffi in the process.
The west got Libya’s high-grade oil and was rid of a thorn in its side. Khadaffi told me that if he were overthrown, Libya would splinter into its tribal mosaic – which is just what has happened. Chaos reigns as warlords backed by the US, France, Britain, Italy and Egypt – and a small ISIS contingent – fight over bleeding Libya. Decades of development that made Libya Africa’s leader in health care and education were wiped away."
posted by Fred Mangels @ 9:03 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
It also created a a handy cache of military arms that conveniently found its way to Syria and the "rebels".
Also, before Gaddafi had even been ousted, a central bank was created in Benghazi.
Perhaps Ghaddafi should have spent his time on earth creating a stable society that had a chance to survive him.
But, Ghaddafi was hardly a statesman, was he?
As the saying goes: Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Too bad Ghaddafi didn't realize that until it was way too late.
It seems to me Ghaddafi was pretty much what we would expect from a ruler of a Muslim state. Yet he'd calmed down considerably, even going so far as to renounce terrorism after we attacked Iraq. I wonder if he might not have become an ally of sorts, given time? But, nope. We helped kill him and in doing so created a bigger mess of Libya.
Ghaddafi could hardly be compared to other Muslim heads of state, such as the last two Kings of Jordan, for example.
The problem wasn't that Ghaddafi was a Muslim; the problem was that he was a power mad paranoiac who tried to create a cult of personality for himself and failed miserably at statecraft. Many non-Muslims went down that same path to the same fate.
It's not that the West did not make mistakes in Libya, of course we did. But Ghaddafi's fate was always in his own hands and he muffed it.
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