There are dozens of countries across the globe whose population suffers at the hands of their leaders. In South America, Africa, Asia; even Kuwait has a brutal dictatorial monarchy style government, which ironically the west defended. Canada has historically always taken the role of assisting in diplomatic and peaceful manners. If military action was used to settle a dispute Canada usually held back and waited until they could come in and keep the two sides from re-engaging in firefights. Canada virtually never, except in the two World Wars and Korea, got involved in regime change or geo-political-economic fights to the death. That has recently changed and now Canada is as guilty as any other aggressor country, currently or historically.
There are many things that can be said about Libya, negative and positive; however there are many Countries that have much more negativity to espouse than Libya; China for one. In that Country human rights are almost non-existent and the various expose's on the brutality being perpetrated on the Chinese people is astounding. Myanmar is another. The Sudanese, Nigeria, Syria, Sierra Leone, Angola, Darfur Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Saudi Arabia, the list is very long.
When the action against Libya began there was only western hatred for Libya, no fighting in the streets or uprising, just peaceful protests. The only uprisings were in other Middle Eastern countries. It began on December 17, 2010 when a man burned himself to death in Tunisia in an act of defiance for his treatment by the police forces after he was arrested for selling vegetables; he couldn't get a job so he did this to get income. In the first week of January 2011, Algeria suffered the same upstart uprising over a protest over no jobs, money and ability to have a decent family life.
Things got worse in the second week of January in Tunisia and the protests began getting violent. Then in Algeria another man burned himself to death after, it is claimed, he was not able to find a job. The media called this a copy cat of the Tunisian man.
January 12, 13 and 14, 2011 were pivotal moments and this was the turning point for Gaddafi in Libya. He spoke out against the protests in Tunisia. He called for everyone in Tunisia to settle down and to wait for a few years to apply proper democratic principles. He warned of the hazards of these uncontrolled uprisings referring to other revolutions.
"Tunisia now lives in fear. Families could be raided and slaughtered in their bedrooms and the citizens in the street killed as if it was the Bolshevik or the American revolution." Gaddafi stated in a public televised address, "What is this for? To change Zine al-Abidine? Hasn't he told you he would step down after three years? Be patient for three years and your son stays alive," Gaddafi urged Tunisia to adopt the Libyan model of government stating, "[this] marks the final destination for the peoples' quest for democracy. If this is what the events [in Tunisia] are for, then it has to be made clear".
Amid more protests, the Tunisian President fled to Saudi Arabia and following that an Egyptian man set himself on fire. This was before the uprising in that country, again protesting the severe economic situations and no jobs. Then it began in Yemen, arguably the poorest people among the Arab states.
The last week of January things exploded. Lebanon, Palestine and Jordon began seeing huge protests and uprisings. The situation got worse in Yemen and in Egypt the country went in to full revolt. Even Iran and Bahrain saw protests and deaths in the streets. Still nothing was happening in Libya, no shooting in the streets, no violent crack down, virtually nothing. This was likely due to the lack of poverty and the wealth of jobs. After the middle of February things began to change.
Foreign mercenaries began to appear on the streets of various Libyan cities. Reports of unusual military and police uniforms were spotted and then many killings began. The new invasion force were on a killing spree and began mid day hangings and beheadings in the streets. Unconfirmed reports spoke of Gaddafi killing protesters however the only confirmed reports were of the foreign mercenaries and the invasion force massacring civilians and Gaddafi police forces and military.
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