Amy Cooper's Page

Hi Amy,

I had a look at your books online with my children a few weeks ago - they are beautiful! It was really nice to get the opportunity to meet you in London...Re the youtube video: I think it is a propaganda video.  Undoubtedly, some people made great gains under the Gaddafi regime, but I think the majority of people in Libya hated Gaddafi. newsgroup.ae/amir2011/amir-march-29.pdf. At least 30% of Libyans are unemployed and living below the national poverty line. I also think that without international support that Libya may have been another Bahrain.  Gaddafi vowed to crush each one of his opponents and many people who have studied the crisis feel that this would have been the outcome.  I listened to a USIP conference the other day called Libya in Transition, it was highlighted by one of the experts that without the support of the NATO campaign that it would have been a total obliteration of Benghazi at the hands of the Gaddafi regime. I don't think he was the sensitive type. Further what Gaddafi wrote in his manifesto was not consistent with his central, incontestable, rule. The Libyan government had a rather grand track record of human rights violations and censorship so strong as to be contested by his own son Saif, who said in 2006 that “in all frankness and transparency, there is no freedom of the press in Libya; actually there is no press, even, and there is no real ‘direct people’s democracy’ on the ground” (Libya Internet Censorship Report, 2009). However, in terms of 'consciousness' I do think that we have to be realistic about international politics and agendas beyond philanthropy. Undoubtedly, Europe had a strategic interest in Libya for its resource and because of the Libyan governments history of exporting terrorism. A recent study done by Alan Krueger suggests that there is a causal relationship between terrorism and the oppression of civil liberties and that, contrary to the status quo, no direct link can be found between poverty and low levels of education and terrorist activity. So I think there were lots of reasons for NATO's vested interest in the war. Anyway, I could rabbit on about this forever...

I hope we meet again soon...and I think your books maybe in Father Christmas' sack of goodies this year!

Speak soon,

Laura x

PS As a final thought, I don't think NATO's handling of the final battle for Sirte was fair - they crushed any opportunity for the NTC to negotiate with local leaders there.