I said Khaddhafi was a dictator, and I didn’t say he was a nice guy or ran the country well. However, we had a known property there, and while he was not supportive of the US in any way, he was somewhat intimidated and could be kept in line.
And he actually did ignore if not tolerate the non-Muslims there, if only, for one thing, because he himself belonged to a slightly odd sect of Islam. The mainstream Islamists had been agitating to take over for a long time, however, and this was the group pursued by his secret police and also the group that eventually was leading the mobs into the street. There were other problems (economic uncertainty, etc.) which enabled them to gain support among the less Islamically inclined.
There were probably some innocents there who honestly thought they were just going to have a nice secular democratic regime once they got rid of Kaddhafi, but most people (except the starry-eyed Arab Spring types in the US) probably knew they were trading one dictatorship for another and much more far-reaching one. I’d say there were no good guys in this fight, but from our point of view, it would have been better to stick with a dictator who was not a mainstream Islamist, had a strong government, and could be controlled to some extent.
As Truman, I think it was, said about some Latin American dictator, “he may be a bast*rd, but he’s our bast*rd.”
Right now, we’ve ended up with situations all over the ME where we can’t control anything and have no leverage. This is because we actually have NO Middle East policy, and these countries also know that we are so weak that the foreign aid is going to keep flowing no matter what they do.
Back to your articulate self, livius!
Well stated.
Gadhaffi was a tamed Bast*rd.
He had been boxed in by President Bush, but his meglamania wouldn’t permit that, and he just had to break out.
Gadhaffi sealed his fate when he wanted to have his oil paid for in gold by the Europeans, who were his customers.
It did not help that he put pressure to get the Lockerbie bomber released.
He came to power at the age of 27, motivated by his resentment of the ostentatious spending of oil wealth by the Libyan rulers.
He became what he resented.
He died, literally being reamed by the next group of “reformers”.
Rinse, lather, repeat.