imperial records of the U.S., Britain, France, and Spain, count the number of civilians they have slaughtered in the last 500 years (and on), we can conclude that these countries are the biggest killers of civilians in human history.
According to The Guardian (U.K.), Italy, Germany, France, and Britain were Libya's leading arms suppliers in 2009, providing Gaddafi's armed forces with military planes, guns, ammunition, tear gas, and chemical weapons.
To further please the West, Gaddafi implemented neoliberal economic reforms, including launching a major privatization program. As one observer explained: "In September 2003, the United Nations lifted all economic sanctions against Libya, in exchange for an economic package which included plans to privatize 360 state enterprises, and in 2006 Libya even requested entry to the World Trade Organization."
Partly due to these regressive reforms, Libya's unemployment rate rose to 20% while the prices of rice, flour, and sugar have soared by 85% since 2008. At the same time, Libya's oil wealth was being given to foreign corporations
Gaddafi was thus moving away from the progressive aspects of his rule and towards becoming a client of the Western countries.
There was one crucial concession, however, that he was not willing to grant the West and that was making Libya a military base for the U.S., as Iraq, Bahrain, and Qatar had become.
Unlike the largely peaceful revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, the revolt against Gaddafi started as an armed uprising.
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