How Threatening was Muammar Gaddafi?

[Trotsky]

I'm not so sure, the consequences were terrible obviously, but no one can accurately predict those.

Gaddafi was about to go full Assad on Benghazi till we hit his tanks in the open.

Seeing what happened in Mosul and other places, I think the outcome is still preferable.

Putting down foreign-funded rebels amid a civil war < the country descending into chaos and squalor?

 

[Fronk]

Never forget.

 

[Rational Poster]

Putting down foreign-funded rebels amid a civil war < the country descending into chaos and squalor?

Halting a protracted siege of a major metropolis is preferable to most outcomes.

 

[4daLuLZ]

What happened to Gaddafi and Mussolini is tame compared to Ceausescu and his wife. They got dragged into the street after trial and gunned down on national TV. Something like a couple thousand rounds went through their bodies to the point the dust from the bullets hitting the ground and the wall behind them shrouded a lot of what happened.

Like 3-4 military officers were on the firing squad but a couple hundred people volunteered.

Ummm.........Gaddafi first got bombed by a fighter jet, then got into a car crash. He was then dragged out n beaten n semi throttled, then stabbed in the asshole with a knife before they drove him in a car and shot him.

So yeah.....Mussolini n ChowChow getting rage shotted is nothing in comparison.

 

[CauseImbetta]

Was no threat as all. A tin-pot dictator in North Africa. Big deal. He didn't want to deal with the us. If you don't deal with the us, you get invaded.

 

[Gregolian]

Ummm.........Gaddafi first got bombed by a fighter jet, then got into a car crash. He was then dragged out n beaten n semi throttled, then stabbed in the asshole with a knife before they drove him in a car and shot him.

So yeah.....Mussolini n ChowChow getting rage shotted is nothing in comparison.

Mussolini had his balls chopped off and then shoved in his mouth before he was hung from the pole.

Never knew about the knife rape shit with Gaddafi.

 

[Gregolian]

Never forget.

"How do you think the Chief's eval is going to go?"
"He'll get a medal, you'll see"
"The Delta guys?"
"Medals, all of them"
"And what do we get?"
"We get to go home"

 

[SBJJ]

Never forget.

It really is disgusting. And you have partisans like rational defending it

 

[Trotsky]

That Clinton video always rustles me.

 

[SBJJ]

That Clinton video always rustles me.

It's what pissed me off about Bush also. And fucking McCain. They act like its a video game.

At least Obama seemed to almost know it was wrong. But he somehow got sucked into it also.

Can only pray we someday get a prez that doesn't think regime change is like playing chess

 

[Trotsky]

It's what pissed me off about Bush also. And fucking McCain. They act like its a video game.

At least Obama seemed to almost know it was wrong. But he somehow got sucked into it also.

Can only pray we someday get a prez that doesn't think regime change is like playing chess

Yup, I agree. Obama was the first president that actually seemed to connect, whether personally or just outwardly, with violence inflicted by the US military, at least to an extent which we haven't seen since Carter or FDR.

For most other presidents and politicians, including GWB and Trump, it's all theoretical and there's not sense of reality.

 

[Islam Imamate]

I am kinda intrigue by he Colonel!

Growing up I always here the aunts and uncles in my family talk about Gaddafi and how he will try to turn pro western nations around and be like Libya or the Soviet Union, and that he would support Islamists to destabilize countries with Moslem minorities.

They also mentioned how Reagan totally fuck Gaddafi in a 1986 bombing, was Gaddafi that threatening?

Qaddafi was a regional threat. He is most likely the one who orchestrated the disappearance of Musa al Sadr, a prominent Lebanese Shiite leader in the late 70s and was also blamed for an assassination attempt on the king of Saudi Arabia so he burned bridges with both Sunnis and Shiites. As far as being a threat to the West, he did orchestrate the Lockerbie bombing so yeah, he's got a track record.

Dam I did not know he is a Chivista baby

I kind of respect Gaddafi in so far as he wasn't a sectarian, as evidenced by his fucking with both Sunnis and Shiites, and was more of an old school anti-imperialist who build connections outside the Islamic world with guys like Chavez and Mandela.

I'm not so sure, the consequences were terrible obviously, but no one can accurately predict those.

Gaddafi was about to go full Assad on Benghazi till we hit his tanks in the open.

Seeing what happened in Mosul and other places, I think the outcome is still preferable.

Also, putting the blame squarely on the US and Obama isn't fair either.

France and the UK were lighting the place up before us.

Preventing a massacre is one thing but there was no reason the NATO coalition had to enact regime change. The Arab League voted in favor of the intervention as did the UN security council because it was supposed to simply establish a NFZ but in the end the NATO coalition abused the mandate and caused the clusterfuck that is Libya today. Even Obama himself says he regrets the way the Libya intervention was handled.

 

[Islam Imamate]

Mussolini had his balls chopped off and then shoved in his mouth before he was hung from the pole.

Never knew about the knife rape shit with Gaddafi.

IIRC it was a bayonet but that's probably not a distinction that mattered much to Kadaphi.

 

[Rational Poster]

Qaddafi was a regional threat. He is most likely the one who orchestrated the disappearance of Musa al Sadr, a prominent Lebanese Shiite leader in the late 70s and was also blamed for an assassination attempt on the king of Saudi Arabia so he burned bridges with both Sunnis and Shiites. As far as being a threat to the West, he did orchestrate the Lockerbie bombing so yeah, he's got a track record.

I kind of respect Gaddafi in so far as he wasn't a sectarian, as evidenced by his fucking with both Sunnis and Shiites, and was more of an old school anti-imperialist who build connections outside the Islamic world with guys like Chavez and Mandela.

Preventing a massacre is one thing but there was no reason the NATO coalition had to enact regime change. The Arab League voted in favor of the intervention as did the UN security council because it was supposed to simply establish a NFZ but in the end the NATO coalition abused the mandate and caused the clusterfuck that is Libya today. Even Obama himself says he regrets the way the Libya intervention was handled.

Well, I think history has shown us when you give the military a hall pass they use it to completely remodel the hall.

I don't think there was a good option in that situation. Every option was bad and had bad outcomes.

I do think however that doing less would have been a lot worse.

 

[Islam Imamate]

Well, I think history has shown us when you give the military a hall pass they use it to completely remodel the hall.

I don't think there was a good option in that situation. Every option was bad and had bad outcomes.

I do think however that doing less would have been a lot worse.

Nah, doing less would've been way better. Simply keeping a NFZ and making sure Qathafi's air force was out of the picture would've allowed the rebels to push as far as they could which would likely mean they would control Cyrenaica, where their forces were mainly based, but would fail to push out Ghadafi's forces from his strongholds in Tripolitania. At which point you'd likely see a stalemate that the international community could negotiate some settlement to.

Even staying out entirely would've been better. As bad as the massacre would've been it would've been the fact that they were getting crushed meant that the opposition wasn't strong enough to oust Kazafi which meant they couldn't hold the country together as we now see. A total Khadafy victory would likely have meant that Libya would've remained relatively stable, at least compared to what Libya is now.

 

[GhostZ06]

Interfering with Libya was the Obama admins worst decision to me.

huh? That was france and the UK not us.

 

[GhostZ06]

Maybe Americans know better how much the CIA was involved, but I can tell you that us, French (Sarkozy), did a lot with troops, funds, weapons, logistic to help Al Qaida/ISIS kill Gaddafi.

Well first of all that was france and the uk. I know this might come to a shock, but not everything we do in the middle east is an american ordeal. You seem to not remember that the brits and french have had hands in africa long before the us.

 

[Islam Imamate]

Btw I was in class and I happened to sit next to this very beautiful Russian girl. I happened to be reading a book from the library on some subject related to Islam and not really minding her until she asked it about it. Finding out that I'm Muslim she asked what I knew about Libya and started praising Khadaffy and his education and healthcare programs before sneaking in a jab at America for fucking up Libya. Very funny to see some good ole Russian anti-imperialism in person, especially from such a lovely source.

 

[Rational Poster]

Nah, doing less would've been way better. Simply keeping a NFZ and making sure Qathafi's air force was out of the picture would've allowed the rebels to push as far as they could which would likely mean they would control Cyrenaica, where their forces were mainly based, but would fail to push out Ghadafi's forces from hsi strongholds in Tripolitania. At which point you'd likely see a stalemate that the international community could negotiate some settlement to.

Even staying out entirely would've been better. As bad as the massacre would've been it would've been the fact that they were getting crushed meant that the opposition wasn't strong enough to oust Kazafi which meant they couldn't hold the country together as we now see. A total Khadafy victory would likely have meant that Libya would've remained relatively stable, at least compared to

I don't think you or I have a crystal ball.

This is just make pretend here.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

not a threat at all.

Qaddifi's biggest mistake was letting US inspect his WMD program and vowing not to pursue WMDs himself.

He cooperated, played nice with US and was punished for it.

He was a leader who loved his people and attempted to form a coalition of African nations...