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Libya: Be careful what you wish for By Brian Cloughley

On March 19, 2011, the United States led NATO countries in a blitz of aircraft and missile strikes against the government of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's batty dictator who was visited in 2004 and 2007 by British prime minister Tony Blair, in 2007 by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2008 by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, and in 2009 by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, all of whom cordially assured him that relations between their countries and his were comfortable.

Gaddafi was a despot and persecuted his enemies quite as savagely as the dictator Hosni Mubarak in neighboring Egypt, but life for most Libyans was comfortable and even the BBC had to admit that Gaddafi's "particular form of socialism does provide free education, healthcare and subsidized housing and transport", although "wages are extremely low and the wealth of the state

and profits from foreign investments have only benefited a narrow elite" (which doesn't happen anywhere else, of course).

The CIA World Factbook noted that Gaddafi's Libya had a literacy rate of 94.2% (better than Malaysia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia, for example), and the World Health Organization recorded a life expectancy of 72.3 years, among the highest in the developing world.

But back to the Western figures who flocked to Libya before NATO's war. A leaked 2009 US diplomatic cable recorded that "Senators McCain and Graham conveyed the US interest in continuing the progress of the bilateral relationship" while Senator Lieberman declared Libya "an important ally in the war on terrorism".

Condoleezza Rice said the US-Libya "relationship has been moving in a good direction for a number of years now and I think tonight does mark a new phase", and Britain's Blair considered his meeting "positive and constructive" because his country's relationship with Libya had "been completely transformed in these last few years. We now have very strong co-operation on counter-terrorism and defense."

The BBC reported that "As Mr Blair met Mr Gaddafi it was announced that Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell had signed a deal worth up to 550 million [British pounds] (US$860 million) for gas exploration rights off the Libyan coast." The US oil companies ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil Corporation and the Hess Company were also deeply involved in Libya's oil production, because it has the world's ninth largest oil reserves.

Things were looking good for Libya.

But on January 21, 2011, Reuters reported that "Muammar Gaddafi said his country and other oil exporters were looking into nationalizing foreign firms due to low oil prices". He suggested that "oil should be owned by the State at this time, so we could better control prices by the increase or decrease in production".

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Libya: Be careful what you wish for