Source: Ted Rall, Guest Post
When Obama took office in 2009, Libya was
under the clutches of longtime dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. But
things were looking up.
Bush and Gaddafi had cut a deal to lift
Western trade sanctions in exchange for Libya acknowledging and paying
restitution for its role in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland. In a rare triumph for Bush, Libya also agreed to
give up its nuclear weapons research program. Libyan and Western
analysts anticipated that Gaddafi's dictatorship would be forced to
accept liberal reforms, perhaps even free elections and rival political
parties, in order to attract Western investment.
Libya in 2009 was prosperous. As citizens of a
major oil- and natural gas-exporting nation, Libyans enjoyed high
salaries, low living expenses, generous social benefits, not to mention
law and order. It seems like a mirage today.
Looking back, many Libyans miss their former
tyrant. "Muammar Gaddafi inherited one of the poorest nations in
Africa," notes Garikai Chengu of the Du Bois Institute for African
Research at Harvard University. "However, by the time he was
assassinated, Libya was unquestionably Africa's most prosperous nation.
Libya had the highest GDP per capita and life expectancy in Africa and
less people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands."
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