Every dictator and commie government that President Reagan took down is being resurrected by the Obama administration.
Via McClatchy
Four years after the start of the rebellion that ended the long rule of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a culture of fear and intimidation has fallen over the country.
“If you have an opinion, you keep it to yourself,” said Elham, a soft-spoken economics student at the sprawling University of Tripoli. “Everyone is scared, so we can’t talk about politics. And since we are girls, if we talk, maybe someone will kidnap us. We can’t talk at all.”
The hushed and downcast mood on the tightly guarded campus today – people interviewed there asked that their full names not be used – is in stark contrast to the jubilance three years before, when, just free of Gadhafi’s oppressive regime, students voiced their aspirations loudly.
They hungered for rights, democratic elections, independent media, international restaurant and shopping chains, and above all a prosperous future in a Libya similar to Dubai, the Persian Gulf emirate that’s a symbol of prosperity. Living in a traditionally conservative society, Libyans often said their devotion to Islam was the one thing that didn’t need fixing.[…]
Abdul was a popular teenager when he rushed to join the fight against Gadhafi’s forces in 2011. Shot in the arm, he turned in his weapon and returned to the campus a hero. But since then, his idealism has soured, as the battles over lucrative assets and political power in the oil-rich nation continue.
“The people who were part of the revolution feel like they are not even Libyan anymore,” he said. “What was it all about?”
Local conflicts across Libya are now cast into a larger, divisive context.
On one side is Prime Minister Abdullah al Thinni’s Tobruk-based government, bolstered by the “Operation Dignity” military campaign of Gen. Khalifa Hifter, a Gadhafi-era defector who long lived in the United States before returning to Libya in 2011. The Tobruk-based government is recognized as Libya’s legitimate authority by the United States, the European Union, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
On the other side are the “Libyan Dawn” forces and their government, led by Prime Minister Omar al Hassi, which seized control of Tripoli, the capital, last year and are backed by Turkey and Qatar. A ruling by Libya’s Supreme Court declared the Tobruk-based House of Representatives illega and unconstitutional. The international community has largely ignored the court decision.