US talk of a Libyan dawn turns to endless darkness

TRIPOLI－In 2011 the United States and its allies launched an operation coded Odyssey Dawn to overthrow the government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the name of bringing a brighter future. However, the military intervention has since only plunged Libyans into an abyss of greater economic and security darkness.

Khadija al-Mansuri, 46, a housewife in the capital Tripoli, described the US-led strikes in her country as "illusions sold by Western countries that Libya would become an advanced country and see a better life after Gaddafi".

"However, what happened was quite the opposite."

Blessed by rich hydrocarbon resources and a strategic location, Libya was once a very wealthy country, with per capita GDP of more than $12,000 in 2010.

A year later, sparked by the US-led military intervention under the guise of "freedom and democracy", unrest gripped Libya. For the past 11 years the country has been wracked by political turmoil and armed conflict, leaving its people in pervasive insecurity and hardship.

"The Western intervention in Libya and the US-led operation in 2011 were a complete conspiracy ...because the regime was changed by force, not by the willingness of the people," said Faraj al-Dali, a Libyan political analyst.

"That is how we have fallen into an unpredictable cycle of civil war. The United States ... always tries to impose its own democratic system on others."

However, it turns a blind eye to major deficiencies in such a system, al-Dali said.

Currency depreciation

Talking about life over the past 11 years, Mahmoud Darwesh, 37, a translator in Tripoli, said the exchange rate of the Libyan dinar to US dollar has fallen from 1.28 dinars to 1 dollar before 2011 to 4.9 dinars now.

"The depreciation of the national currency has caused the cost of living to rise sharply. Eleven years ago our lives were well secured. Now we have power cuts for more than 10 hours a day."

Fat'hi al-Madhuni, 40, a teacher and father of five, said in a resigned voice: "Unfortunately, year after year the change has been for the worse."

Before 2011 his monthly salary was enough to support the entire family, but now it can barely last two weeks, he said, adding he has to find time to drive a taxi to support his family.

Iman Jalal, a political science professor at the University of Tripoli, said the US should realize that every country has a political system that suits its own conditions.

"Trying to impose a political ideology on other countries is doomed to complete failure. All previous attempts, be it in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or Libya, have proved that it is the US-led (violent) intervention that has caused prolonged poverty and backwardness in these countries."

Xinhua