Muammar Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary political leader infamous for supporting terrorism, violating human rights, and using the military to obtain power in North Africa.
He was born in 1942 when Libya was an Italian colony. He supported Arab nationalism and received early military education. He increased his power in the military and led a revolutionary group that overthrew King Idris. Gaddafi was now the ruler of Libya. Gaddafi was very opposed to the West. He did not like imperialism. Some of his early actions against the West were shutting down Western military bases in Libya, changing the calendar to the Islamic calendar, outlawing Jews and Italians and restricting Western access to oil. He involved Libya in wars in Egypt, Sudan and Chad.
Gaddafi used force and unlawful methods to keep power. He sent spies to assassinate Libyans in exile and also assassinated anyone who he thought could be a threat to his power. Gaddafi cut down his advisers to a very small number to keep complete control of Libya but most importantly Libyan oil. Gaddafi became increasingly rich off of oil whilst the Libyan people struggled to survive. He had many human rights violations using torture, unfair trials and assassination to keep his power.
Gaddafi supported terrorism and has been linked to many terrorist attacks. The Lockerbie bombing was when Libyan terrorists blew up a Scottish plane which resulted in the deaths of 270 people. Another Libyan act of terrorist was when they blew up a French plane which killed 170 people. Gaddafi's anti-imperialism led him to sponsor terrorist attacks in Europe that killed hundreds of innocent civilians.
Because of these reasons the U.S has been involved in Libya since Reagan. Reagan commanded a bombing of Libya. The US tried to ease tensions but got involved in the Libyan Civil War. NATO pilots bombed Gaddafi's headquarters and weakened him. On October 20, 2011, Gaddafi was killed. After his death, Libya continued to be a state of violence with bad corrupt leaders. Obama stated that not solving the issue in Libya after Gaddafi was the worst mistake of his presidency. He was criticized for giving Libyan rebels arms which put more guns in a messy situation. This was proven during the Benghazi attack on the 9th of September 2012 in which 4 Americans including the ambassador were killed. This would be an interesting event that someone could research further and comment below.
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/people/muammar-al-qaddafi-39014
http://www.africanews.com/2016/04/11/obama-aftermath-of-gaddafi-overthrow-worst-mistake-as-president//
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya%E2%80%93United_States_relations
I really enjoyed this post and found in interesting how political decisions that the government made in the past still affect us today! Looking deeper into Muammar Gaddafi's history, it was interesting to discover that his rise to power was not an isolated event. In fact, he received inspiration from other leaders, such as President Nasser of Egypt and attempted to solve the issues in Libya in the same manner that Nasser had. What this parallel shows is that history does repeat itself and that the rising tensions within the region were part of a larger shift within the Arab nations.
ReplyDeleteSOURCES : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12688033
Thanks for the post Owen! I thought it was very interesting that Gaddaffi was allowed to stay in power for so long even after committing such horrible acts of terror around the world. I decided to follow your suggestion and research the attack of the US mission at Benghazi that occurred on September 11, 2012. During the attack, the US ambassador, an information specialist, and two ex-Navy Seals lost their lives. Initially, the event was believed to be the result of an angry mob reacting to a anti-Muslim video, but after a few days it became clear that it was a pre-orchestrated attack. In fact, people still dispute what actually occurred during the attack, and whether the US government knew about it before hand. While there was no clear indicator that there would be an attack on that certain US mission, the warning signs were becoming increasingly visable in the time approaching the attack. One very clear sign was the attack on the British Ambassador's convoy only a few months before. With all these warning signs, it makes you question whether the US government could have done more to save the lives of the 4 Americans that lost their lives during the attack.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vox.com/cards/benghazi-ambassador-stevens-attack/benghazi-basics
https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/10/world/benghazi-consulate-attack-fast-facts/index.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-19587068
Great post Owen! I've always felt like I should learn more about the political complications of the Middle East, and learning about Gaddafi is exactly that. I wanted to research how he died, as dictators often die mysteriously, and I found some interesting information. It seems like the US and NATO both pledged to bring Gaddafi to trial for his crimes, not kill him. And yet, Gaddafi was captured alive then later killed. Now the US and NATO were not involved in the capture, but immediately prior to the capture, NATO had fired a missile into the convoy that was escorting Gaddafi. Afterwards, rebels found and captured the dictator and he died in their custody, most likely by the hands of the impassioned and unruly young men who had captured him. So while he was not killed by the US or NATO, their actions did lead to his eventual death. The ethics of this situation are questionable, certainly because of the promise the US and NATO made.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/qaddafi-was-captured-alive-who-killed-him/247113/