I have heard so many varying views regarding this guy. Most of my Libyan friends who live in america couldn't stand the guy yet i talk to some other african americans and random people and they tell me he wasn't as bad as many say and in fact the people of libya were treated very well. I would like to get an educated response to this question from the many on this message forum that are experts on the these topics.
Gaddafi basically dumped the idea of pan-Arab nationalism after Nasser's experiments failed and switched to supporting the idea of African nationalism. He invested heavily in Africa and built a lot of infrastructure in African countries. It's why a lot of African mercenaries showed up in Libya during the revolution to defend Gaddafi. Gaddafi had a ton of goodwill that he built up overtime. The African community supported him and as a result you can see why African Americans don't necessarily view him through the same lens as others. The guy was scum but for the impoverished countries around him, he was an important force that they did not want to lose.
He was a huge sponsor of terrorism and murdered 189 Americans (amongst others). He was pure evil. Your friends who defend this man are pieces of ****.
The western part of Libya-where Gaddafi dumped all of the country's oil money- will be worse off and the long neglected East will improve. Libya will either be ran by a well-liked nationalist(like Mossadegh) a radical cleric (like Khomenni) an unpopular western puppet (like Karzai) or be decentralized with local militias running everything and oil revenues keeping the country from genocide and chaos (like Iraq). The first option is the best for the Libya, the 3rd is best for NATO, and the 2nd and 4th options are trouble for everybody.
The guy started off as a socialist and had a lot of ideas that would have helped his country prosper. But the biggest mistake he made is that he nationalized the oil companies which didn't help his cause (due to lack of knowledge and technology, his country did not progress). King Idris who was in rule before was very pro Western and was giving more than 50% of the profits from the oil industry to outside investors. So essentially he first pissed of the major oil companies that were making a killing and secondly the Cold War era had everyone on edge already and his ideology was scaring some in the West. There were numerous plots to try to get him out of power and that's when he morphed into a typical dictator. He did some horrendous things and he did some good things all at the same time. His style of governance at the end kind of tells you how paranoid and ruthless he became. I would have liked to see what he could have done with the country if he wasn't always targeted by outsiders. Oil can be as big a curse as it can be a blessing.
I understand that the guy was a nut, but how were the people of libya doing financially? Is it true that libyans had all these perks? Free education, free healthcare, low mortality rate etc...
Are you sure the African mercenaries weren't risking their lives just because of the goodwill Gaddafi had built up over the years? [/end ridiculous sarcasm]
