Independent: Libya has plunged unnoticed into its worst political and economic crisis since the defeat of Gaddafi
A little under two years ago, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, urged British businessmen to begin “packing their suitcases” and to fly to Libya to share in the reconstruction of the country and exploit an anticipated boom in natural resources.
Yet now Libya has almost entirely stopped producing oil as the government loses control of much of the country to militia fighters.
Mutinying security men have taken over oil ports on the Mediterranean and are seeking to sell crude oil on the black market. Ali Zeidan, Libya’s Prime Minister, has threatened to “bomb from the air and the sea” any oil tanker trying to pick up the illicit oil from the oil terminal guards, who are mostly former rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi and have been on strike over low pay and alleged government corruption since July.
“Unnoticed”. Well, that’s one word for it.
Life is much better now in Libya than when Gadhafi was giving newly married Libyan couples a free home as a gift from the state, Oui Oui ET?
Of course they may get it all back in a mere few generations.
What do you mean my plan didn’t work?
Prez O-Dumber & Hillary.
Prime examples of a government “spreading democracy” throughout the globw which doesn’t practice democracy at home. What the last 4 US regimes have been spreading is Soviet-styled chaos designed to destabilize nations they wish to invade afterward with infrastructure loans/contractors, then escape with the loot before the flimsy propped-up proxy government collapses – then you go back in and do it all over again.
A perfect example of why we should stay the frig out of Syria. No matter what we do in the Middle East, we will screw it up. A generation or two ago the hippie types would travel to Afghanistan for the copious amounts of heroin and the quaint backward peaceful country. Then the Russians figured they could do a better job running it.
What difference does it make?
The media has been ignoring this one. It’s a far more compelling reason for the rise in the price of oil than concern over Syria. The Libyan intervention (aside from the Right to Protect nonsense) was staged to secure Europe’s oil supply. It would now appear that it’s more unstable than ever before. This would seem to have backfired about as badly as Vietnam.
I’m sure that the drop in Libyan oil production is making the Russians very happy. Right now Russia is ready to step up shipments to Europe. The greater the Russian share of oil and natural gas shipped to the EU, the greater their influence in European politics, especially during one of those hellishly cold winters caused by “global warming” when not a single bird blender is turning and when the Russians can just shut off the energy flow should the Euroweenies act in a way contrary to longterm Russian interests.
For the whole of the cold war, large numbers of US troops were stationed in Europe to prevent the Russians from taking over Europe, but it looks like this will happen through the back door as the Euroweenies lap up the CAGW religion leaving them wide open to take over by a country who hasn’t succumbed to the mass watermelon idiocy and which has very large carbon based energy reserves.
As far as Libya goes, the Egyptian army must be looking at all of the potential oil revenues that could be theirs if one just took out a few warring factions. Presumably this would be under the pretext of restoring order after a few manufactured Libyan rebel raids on Egyptian targets. If the Egyptians don’t go for the Libyan oil, likely the Chinese are already eying it.
Egypt moving into Libya makes so much sense on so many levels. If I remember correctly Libya was producing roughly 1.5 million bpd. Mostly to Italy.
What I am not seeing a lot of news on is the monster natural gas find that the Israelis made in the Mediterranean. Cypress was to be a transfer point for a gas line to Europe. The Russians were actually playing nice with the Israelis hoping to get a piece of the action. It would actually threaten the Russian gas monopoly.
Russian foreign policy in the ME has been working quite well for them lately. They influence Iran and now Iraq but have even more control/influence in their previous colonies, the ‘Stans’.
In the mean time their allies/agents in Euroland and the USA continue to undermine any cohesive economic direction.