My Take on Libya

I have been, as many others, following events in Libya for the past months and now that the conflict seems to be coming to an end, I will publish the following comments I have been jotting down for weeks and that I can fully agree with.

The Libyan conflict was atypical and strange, to say the least, from the very beginning. It actually probably should never even have taken place.
1. Oil was never the real issue. On the contrary, Khadafy himself was the best guarantee of oil supplies. Not to mention the vast quantities of Libyan investments in Europe and the substantial European investments in Libya.
2. Italy, a major European player, made very clear from the very beginning where its strategic interests lie.
3. Germany, another major European player, chose to simply look the other way and to ignore the Libyan rebels.
4. The UK took part in the NATO operations, but never did show any real enthusiasm with the military side of the conflict.
5. The USA has only marginal strategic interests in Libya. President Obama had to be dragged into the war, against his wishes and the majority of his Administration’s opinion.

At the end of the day, France emerges as the sole strong supporter of military action against Khadafy’s regime. It seems that without Sarkozy´s leadership and the advice of Bernard-Henri Levy, there would have been no Libyan war.

My only hope is that they did it for the humanitarian reasons they have so profusely quoted and repeated over and over again.