I came across this surprising article today - Gadhafi of Libya had contacted the US before the coalition bombing campaign which also armed various rebel groups that are still at war.
He offered a peaceful transfer of power where he woudl abdicate and go into exile - he even took "confidence building" measures of moving his armed forces away from the cities.
He recieved no response and eventually after the passing of a UN resolution to "protect civilians" the Western coalition of nations, mainly France and the UK went to war to oust him.
Libya has remained broken and in chaos ever since.
Now I am not here to sing the virtues of Gadhafi, but if he was willing to go, there was no need for the subsequent bloodshed (and his lynching becomes convenient to keep him silent).
Thousands have died becase of these events by nations including France but no one will tweet "JeSuisLibya".
Comments
You are possibly correct, what as been done to Libya/Ghadafi has split public opinion in the West. Unfortunately public opinion has a short attention span.
The second Gulf War was to break Sadaam Husein, The Ousting of Col Ghadafi was totaly wrong. It was all pure power politics at play. Iraq and Iran had agreed to trade oil/gas in currencies other then the US$. This could not be allowed to happen, Col Ghadafi was proposing the formation of a pan-african dinar to be used for trade, again this could not be allowed to happen.
The original attempt to bomb Assadds forces [ to protct civilians?] was prevented, because many UK citizens wrote/E=mailed their MPs saying enough, keep out of Syria's internal affairs, you have done more then enough harm in our name already. For once, our MP's listened and the UK government voted not to bomb Syria, most EU countries followed suit and the US could not get a vote through the House of Representatives.
One thing these countries had in common was [not Dictators?] they all ran economies that did not require the use of borrowed money to function. They were in financial debt to no one.
As you say, Col Ghadafi was no angel, and he was the head of Libya and is family were in key positions of power. Plus Saif Ghadafi would have probably taken over from his father, but again that was a problem for the Libyan people. Son following Father into politics happens in the west as well as the east.
Sorry if i have gone on a bit, but i have tended to keep an eye on Libya over the years, I worked in Tripoli 1975-78, which was two years after Col Ghadafi came to power. I saw the state of the country then. In that time improvements had been made to housing, medical conditions, most of the slums in Tripoli had been cleared and most people now had access to decent sanitation, clean drinking water and education.
My wife and i returned to Libya for 3 weeks to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversay and was amazed to see the change. We travelled as far south as Ghadames. the old town was still the same, but most Libyans were now living in modern property. The old town was more or less kept as a living musuem. The improvements in the roads was tremendous, it used to take us 2 days over rough roads, now we did it in a day. The trip to Sirte via Garyan and Misarata, was just as good a trip. Where we stayed overnight in Sirte.
Sirte, had been planned to be the admin centre for Libya and its oil production, it was also were the man made river reached the Meditereanean prior to going east and west, The man made river was a project that the world laughed at when we lived in Libya, but it has come to fruition. The other scheme was to build a railway line from Tunisia to Egypt, which will now not be built due to the civil war. At least one could see were libya's oil wealth had gone, not like in the UK.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/libyas-water-wars-and-gaddafis-great-man-ma...
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/earthworks-60-comple...
Again i digress, the next trip was to Tobruk, staying 2 nights before heading to Benghazi, via Derna and Al Marj We stayed in Benghazi 2 nights before heading back along the coast to Misrata for 2 nights before heading for Tripol. One main employer in Misrata was the steel works? which supplied steel for building work, plus new plant was planned for the production of rail for the proposed railway?
All in all, Libya had moved considerably forward in the 20 years or so, whilst not perfect, the people we met seemed happy enough. As you say, Col Ghadafi was a Dictator and may have been forming some sort of family dynasty, but i don't believe that he was as corrupt as he was made out to be. It would have been interesting to hear his version of events, maybe that was why he was killed? Plus we are still waiting for the trial of his son Saif, that if he ever comes to trial.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/saif-al-islam-gaddafi
Unfortunately, there is very little reporting on this matter by MSM, nor the fact he as been held in solitary confinement. Nor does anyone appear to support a request for him to be tried outside of Libya.