A decade ago today, NATO’s assault on Libya began & the most developed country in Africa as per the UN’s Human Development Index was crushed. It was whitewashed as a humanitarian intervention & supported by everyone from Anthony Bourdain to Ken Roth & a host of ‘Left’ luminaries.
One such luminary was the supposed Marxist and anti-imperialist Gilbert Achcar who declared confidently in 2011: “[I]f there is no clarity about what a post-Gaddafi Libya might look like . . . it can’t be worse than Gaddafi’s regime”.
The Guardian was, of course, at the forefront of the propaganda campaign to portray the intervention as benevolent and a success. Shamefully it announced this even after reports had emerged of the mass detainment and lynching of Black Africans in Libya: 
Here’s the 2010 UN Human Development Index, not a perfect measure, but it’s telling that Libya was not only the highest ranked country in Africa, but in fact one of the highest ranked non-Western countries full stop - it was higher than Saudi Arabia. hdr.undp.org/sites/default/…
Libya also played a part in the awakening I mentioned in this tweet, but sadly not straight away, I remember being quite confused & only later realising the extent to which I had accepted propaganda about Libya/Gaddafi uncritically even though I was opposed to NATO’s involvement.
https://twitter.com/louis_allday/status/1504732190663401476
A good place to start for the truth about what NATO did to Libya and why is this book: barakabooks.com/catalogue/slou…
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