I have also said Saddam being left alone could have prevented the rise of ISIS, but perhaps that isn’t correct. Would he have fared much better than Gadhaffi during the Arab Spring? Not without Assad-esque tactics I think.
Gaddafi would be alive and well to this very day if his enemies were not armed and supported by NATO. He was denied the sky to fight his opposition; he was denied weapons. But his enemies were given weapons, and NATO airplanes attacked Gaddafi's troops on the ground. Now we have ruins in Libya, another lawless country, just like Afghanistan, where the real fight for power is yet to begin. Gaddafi was a strongman... in a country that can be held together and in peace only by a strongman. Gaddafi was done with his terrorist past; he gave up WMD; he, apparently, became an enlightened, benevolent dictator. What good was accomplished by removal of Gaddafi?
>Would he have fared much better than Gadhaffi during the Arab Spring?<
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The Arab Spring was fed and promoted by the Obama administration and NATO.