Just before we get into Today’s video, I want to give a random YouTube plug.
Sometimes I’m browsing around YouTube and I stumbled across a channel that I think it’s
criminally unsubscribed and that channel I want to tell you about today is DUMB MONEY.
‘We are dumb money, we quit our day jobs to do this…’
This is more business focused channel.
I’m not getting paid for saying this or anything like that.
It’s just a channel I stumbled across and I really liked.
They have a few thousands subscribers and I’d like to send them some more.
So you can have their links on the description below.
So now, let’s get on to this.
Nobody likes dictators but… what happens when the alternative is even worse?
This is the story of Libya.
This is the story of former prime minister Gaddafi’s rise and fall.
Libya has more oil reserves than America.
In fact, they have the biggest oil reserves in Africa.
Then again, production-wise, they are far below most of the famous oil countries, even
below Iran, despite Trump’s sanctions.
Why?
Well… ever heard of the Arab Spring?
After that period of uprisings and general destabilization, Libya is the country that
ended up worst off.
Basically, there’s a lesson to be learned from Libya: no matter how badly you think
a country is doing… it can do even worse.
Have you ever seen the movie ‘The dictator’, by Shasha Baron Cohen?
Well, this parody was pretty much inspired by MUHAMMAR EL GADDAFI: one of the craziest
dictators of all time, who ruled Libya for decades.
Gaddafi was well known for having his own harem of about 30 women.
This harem was known as his Amazonian Guard.
From the early 1970s onward, they remained close by his side at all times.
Sometimes the women took bullets for Gaddafi.
One woman died and two were injured when the Libyan leader was attacked in 1998.
Some of the conditions to become part of the guard were to make an oath of virginity, dress
in camouflage, and maintain perfect nail polish and makeup.
Of course, there are thousands of reports of rape and abuse that came to light after
Gaddafi’s death.
Surprisingly, during his lifetime, Gaddafi always congratulated himself as a protector
of Women’s rights in the Arab World.
But not only that!
The self-proclaimed Brother Leader had a massive fear of heights and could not fly more than
eight hours over water… he also had some peculiar demands when he stayed in hotels:
he always had to stay on the first floor and he would not climb more than 35 steps.
So yes, if we make a video ranking the most extravagant dictators of all time, Gaddafi
would definitely be in the top 10.
Diplomacy-wise, Gaddafi is one of those dictators that went from being America’s worst enemy
to a friend of the US before becoming, yet again, the man America loved to hate.
And now Libya is a chaotic state, where even foreign oil companies have to make deals with
warlords in order to keep pumping oil.
Don’t believe me?
Just look at this news.
Repsol oil fields in Libya go back to Business after a deal with raiders
In this case, a Spanish oil company, Repsol, had an agreement with the Libyan National
Oil corporation in 2008.
Back then, they just had to agree with the dictatorship to do business.
Then, during the Libyan civil war, a different warlord took over Repsol facilities.
And, finally, after a lot of struggle, in 2018, the oil company had to make an agreement
with some local tribe.
What happened here?
What’s going on in Libya today?
Why would an oil company make a deal with a war lord?
Today, we’re going to answer all of these questions but, before we do, let’s take
a look back at the history.
THE MAN YOU LOVE TO HATE
Ever seen the movie Naked gun?
It starts with a scene where Gaddafi appears next to the other bad guys of the moment:
Idi Amin, Ayatollah Khomeini, Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro… they’re all gathered
in a room, making a plan to defeat the US.
Yes, my dear viewers, there was a time when Gaddafi was considered one of the worst evils
on the planet.
Why?
Let’s go back in time.
Libya was an Italian colony for several decades in the early 1900s, then it became a monarchy
until in 1969, Gaddafi rose to power.
He believed in so-called Arab Socialism, a strange cocktail of centralized economy, secularism,
and cult of personality.
He even developed his own political philosophy, writing an extremely influential book, “The
Green Book”.
He made countless appearances at Arab and international gatherings, standing out not
just with his outlandish clothing, but also because of his blunt speeches and odd behaviour.
Even some socialist parties in Europe were sponsored by him.
Oil could pay for a lot of influence in the rest of the world.
But unlike other countries like Egypt, he didn’t nationalize oil.
He put harder conditions on foreign oil companies, but that was all.
He challenged oil executives by stating "people who have lived without oil for 5,000 years
can live without it again for a few years in order to attain their legitimate rights".
That was a bold move.
A move that helped him secure a majority share of oil company revenues while, at the same
time, maintaining an effective oil industry in the country.
Despite the socialism and the dictatorship, Libya was still open for business.
Repsol says Libyan oil nationalisation unlikely And, let’s be honest here… the formula
worked.
Many European companies like ENI, TOTAL and Repsol kept doing business with Libya.
Money came in, oil came out.
And the country’s citizens benefited.
For years, Libya had the highest Human Development Index of any African country, at certain points,
surpassing South Africa.
This increase was accompanied by a very controversial foreign policy.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Gaddafi aligned himself with the Eastern Bloc, Fidel Castro’s
Cuba and openly supported movements like the Irish Republican Army and the Palestinian
Liberation Front.
But none of this would have been a big deal if it wasn’t for the terrorism.
Libya’s government was known to participate or aide in terrorist acts.
Many Marxist-inspired guerrilla groups or even terrorist groups were funded by Gaddafi.
But the defining moment was the bombing of a nightclub in Berlin where American soldiers
used to frequent.
Many Libyan spies were involved in this.
And America didn’t wait to answer.
‘At 7 o clock this evening, eastern time, air and naval forces of the United States
launched a series of strikes against the headquarters, terrorist facilities and military assets that
support Muhammar Gaddafi’s subversive activities’
The harsh reaction was supposed to kill the “mad dog of the Middle East”, as Reagan
branded Gaddafi, but the Colonel came out of the attack unscathed.
America put Libya on the terrorist-friendly countries list and American companies were
restricted from exploiting oil there.
Nonetheless, those European companies like Total, Repsol, and ENI kept doing their thing.
But let’s press fast forward on our story.
In 2001, 9/11 happened.
And this was a turning point for Gaddafi’s foreign policy.
Terrorist-loving as he was, Gaddafi was inspired by socialism, not radical Islamism.
So Osama Bin Laden was a common enemy, both for America and for many socialist leaders.
This is how, Gaddafi started collaborating with America by signing a nuclear disarmament
agreement, in which the leader agreed to eliminate his country’s weapons of mass destruction.
The US declared victory, and everything was good again.
In 2006 they even took Libya off the list of terrorist countries.
Gaddafi was a son of a bitch… but now he was OUR son of a bitch.
(((Please, pronounce the word “son of a bitch” like that.
I will add some censorship on post production)))
Nonetheless, again, things changed in 2011…
THE ARAB SPRING
The Arab Spring began in December 2010 when Mohammed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor,
set himself on fire in protest against the police.
He could have never imagined how his sacrifice would spark a revolution.
All of a sudden, the Tunisian people started protesting against their government, which
was another Arab socialist dictatorship.
And this inspired protesters in neighboring countries.
Suddenly, most of the Northern African countries were overthrowing their dictators.
Libya was not the exception.
In early 2011, a civil war broke out.
When the first winds of rebellion started blowing towards Libya, Gaddafi even tried
to protest with the people, trying to keep up with this “brother leader of the revolution”
image that he was so desperate to keep.
But, turns out, people could see through his efforts.
The scent of freedom was inebriating.
Many young Libyans were fueled by the recent toppling of Egypt’s Mubarak and Tunisia’s
Ben Ali.
That’s when Gaddafi changed his tune and reverted back to being ruthless.
Gaddafi tells the media: 'All my people love me.
They would die to protect me' Libyan leader laughs off international pressure to step
down while speaking to news organizations Within days, opposition supporters were controlling
Benghazi and the government was seeing massive rates of defection.
The rebels tried organizing even further, but they were being hit pretty hard by the
Colonel’s forces.
As you can imagine, Gaddafi had an army much bigger than those 30 women from his Amazon
guard.
Libyan oil helped to pay for a lot of modern weaponry.
And this was pretty helpful in repressing protesters.
But, as so many people lost their lives, the image of Gaddafi outside of Libya couldn’t
get worse.
Once again, he went from being OUR bad guy to the man everyone loved to hate.
And this is why a coalition led by NATO’s forces invaded Libya on the 21st of March
2011 in support of the rebels.
But it was months before NATO could turn the tables.
As the fighting intensified, NATO carried out a bombing campaign in support of anti-Gaddafi
forces.
The bombing forced Gaddafi to flee from Tripoli to his hometown of Sirte, where opposition
fighters would eventually capture him.
On October 20, 2011, a video released by the fighters shows Gaddafi begging for his life.
In another clip, the former strongman is seen dead, with an apparent gunshot wound to the
head.
Muammar Gaddafi was caught and shot dead by the militias of the Libyan National Transitional
Council, with the active support of French Intelligence.
Many of you would be tempted to say SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS, right?
Well… wait a minute.
FROM BAD TO EVEN WORSE
After the corpse of the former dictator was dragged through the streets and put on display,
the rebels turned on each other.
The country was split, and crime and human trafficking ran rampant.
And if there’s one rule in politics is this: THERE CANNOT BE A POWER VACUUM.
Gaddafi was gone but… who or what was the alternative?
Even though some western countries had been doing good business with Gaddafi, they never
fully trusted him, of course.
They saw the civil war as an opportunity to remove him from power and intervene militarily
in order to cut off the Arab revolution that had flared up in Tunisia and Egypt.
It also provided powers such as France and Britain a chance to reassert themselves on
the world stage.
After Gaddafi’s death, Libya was torn up and divided, without a national government
to claim control.
And what that meant at the time was that local militias now had the power of life and death
over the population.
The economy was also messed up, as one might expect after a revolution.
The GDP collapsed in 2014 and in 2015 the production of crude oil fell to the lowest
level on record since the 1970s.
Ex-NATO boss: Libya still a 'model intervention' You see, unlike the Iraq or Afghanistan war,
the Libyan one was a different animal.
In this case, it was not led by America but, instead, by France.
And the French military style couldn’t be more different.
Usually, the Americans invade a country, kill the dictator, and then stay there for years.
We’ve seen this in Japan and Germany after World War II but also in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The military tries to make sure they can form a post war government and fight the last groups
that supported the former one.
The French are pretty much the opposite.
They strike, kill the bad guy, and leave.
This is what happened in Mali, for example.
And this is what happened in Libya.
So, of course, effectiveness wise, the Libyan war was a complete success.
In fact, if you look at this chart, you can see that it was one of the cheapest wars in
modern history.
It took a little over a month.
Compared with Iraq or Afghanistan, the Libyan war couldn’t be more cost effective.
So what’s the problem?
Well, the aftermath.
After the fall of Gaddafi, three main players emerged in the country: the government of
Tripoli, supported by Turkey and Qatar, the government of Tobruk, supported mainly by
Egypt and the Arab Emirates and, last but not least, the DAESH forces.
War raged once more and DAESH took advantage of the chaos, expanding rapidly.
The elections in 2014 were marred by violence and low turnout.
Eventually, a compromise was found, and a Government of National Agreement was formed,
sponsored by the UN.
A group that monitors violence using media reports estimated that more than 4,600 people
have died in the fighting since the beginning of 2014 and the U.N. estimates 2.44 million
people — about a third of Libya’s population — have been affected by the fighting, which
has led to shortages of food, water, electricity and medical supplies and reduced access to
health care and public services Forgotten war: a crisis deepens in Libya but
where are the cameras?
As you might have noticed, Libya isn’t doing much better today...
The government installed in 2016 only has a partial hold on the country.
Given this instability, there are no facilities and desert patrols to tackle trafficking networks.
There are also no funds for Libya's coastguard to monitor sea crossings
And this is why, in this dangerous power vacuum, oil companies are even starting to make deals
with local tribes in order to keep their businesses going.
The Repsol camp in Libya resumes activity after the agreement with the assailants
Despite all the turmoil, Repsol is still going strong in Libya and is currently preparing
to increase production even more.
Money really does talk.
Now the question is… if even big oil companies are making deals with rebels, does a unified
Libyan government really have a chance?
Will we ever see a democratic and stable government in this country?
Please, leave your answers in the comment section below.
And of course, don’t forget to visit our friends from RECONSIDER MEDIA.Com, the podcast
that provided the voices in this video that are not mine.
Also, remember that we publish brand new videos every week so subscribe to VisualPolitik and
hit that bell button so you won’t miss any posts.
If you liked this video, give us a thumbs up and as always, I’ll see you next time!