Sometimes, these things go too far.
There is an element of truth to it, however. Gaddafi was supported by a few CIA administrations because he was able to bring stability to the country. It may have been a dictatorship - but it was better than a bunch of tribal war-lords battling for suppremacy. Even better - because of our backing, he was relatively friendly toward the U.S.
The sentiment wasn't necessarily shared by all Libyans - but it was far better than most of the alternatives.
It stands to reason that he would be targetted by the Muslim Brotherhood during the "Arab Spring" and other related events. They incited riots in his nation to try and remove him from power.
Because the U.S. and NATO have adopted absolutely bat-shit insane foreign policies - we then decided to run combat operations against Gaddafi in support of the rebels - who, even at the time, our intel agencies were warning had potential links back to the Muslim Brotherhood and AQ.
Then the media kind of ignored the fact that the rebels decided to go bonkers and start slaughtering black africans.
But that's what happens when you support rebels without doing some damned good fact-checking.
While I think the whole "conspiracy" element of this goes a bit far... there is a real truth in that much of the 'crisis' was manufactured. The uprising against Gaddafi actually represented a fairly small percentage of the population and intel was warning our top tiers of command that we didn't know exactly who these rebels were - but they were giving off some 'bad vibes' and had potential links to groups that we've more or less declared an undying war against.
So, if you ask me - that's another "scandal" the President should be made to answer for - along with a few dozen other things he's been found to have his hands in.
It's frustrating to me... it really is.
Americans, for the most part, genuinely want to help the rest of the world. But they don't have the first clue how to go about it. They see rebels fighting for 'democracy' - and don't even, once, consider that those people have no idea what democracy is. We blow up their government, set up an election for them, pat ourselves on the back, and say "Job well done - now they will live a better life."
The reality is that it doesn't work that way in most areas. They've continually lived under oppression from one group or another. They don't understand what it means to have a difference of opinion. To them - the vote is a means of achieving oppression/suppression without having to spill blood over it (though a few are passionate enough to make that happen). They vote based on: "I win, you lose - now you do what I say."
And that's not how democracy works. At least - not a workable democracy. Limits must be in place that allow people to go about living their individual lives.
That's the largely untold story of the former states within Yugoslavia - Kosovo, Montenegro, etc. We come through - blow shit up and say "Merry Christmas! Enjoy a better life!" ... Then they argue, fight, and end up shooting at each other in the streets because they're not used to the idea of limited and self-government.
We forget that our own history was that we were left alone by Britain for nearly a hundred years after the colonies were first founded. We were given a lot of free reign because we were quite removed - even by comparison to the farther reaches of the British Empire. It wasn't until someone drew the King's attention to our thriving ship building and export industry that they decided it was time to give us more structure as a proper british colony should have.
Apparently - we felt, passionately, that we were better able to govern ourselves. We'd been doing just fine without the interference of Britain for the past 100 years, and didn't much look forward to submitting to a different system of government.
Even then - we almost fell on our ass with the Continental Congress. The colonies were getting testy with each other - and it became apparent that a centralized authority would have to exist for some things. Even then - there were numerous times through history where the states differed substantially in opinion and caused a stir over it, directly challenging the authority of the national government.
You can't just throw out a government, hand the people a ballot, and walk away thinking that you've done them a favor... which is what our current foreign policy seems to be.
Americans mean well by it (though I'm not sure about our politicians - perhaps they are malevolent or just plain retarded... likely a saddening mixture of both) - but they don't really understand what it is they are doing. How can they? With media journalism stupidly lacking in integrity and on doing follow-up investigatons/reports... they are led to believe that all is well in the world.
Yet they forgot that ... on a whim... their country was responsible for redrawing national boundaries. Most of them don't even realize that countries like Yugoslavia don't exist anymore... this 'static' view of the world map is dangerous.
