Libya Our Next Iraq?

Following the "fall" of Tripoli on Tuesday, I heard an NPR reporter say that Libyan oil revenues would provide the funds for rebuilding the country. I shook my head when I heard that one and immediately called a like-minded friend. I said to him, "Hmmmm....Sound familiar?" He chuckled, then said, "And I bet Halliburton will get the rebuilding contract." (Halliburton, the mega-company that was given a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq, but which simply absconded with a lot of money. The same company in which VP Dick Cheney was heavily invested and had been at the helm before becoming vice president.)

On the same news program, I heard an interview with the current Libyan ambassador to the U.S., the same guy who had been the Kadafi/Gaddafi/Qaddafi's ambassador to the U.S. until he jumped ship a few months ago. He reported that $160-170 billion in Libyan assets are in banks around the world. Just like Iraq, a whole heck of a lot of unaccounted-for money.

The third disturbing thing is the raid on the Kadafi's arsenals, which no one is guarding. So, just like Iraq, we'll end up with a plethora of young, restless, unemployed men with guns. Whatever you want to say about Kadafi, he united the country and kept ethnic tensions in check, just as every strongman from the former Soviet Union to the former Yugoslavia to Iraq once did. But once they were gone, all hell broke loose.

So now what? What's your guess? Mine? It sure ain't over yet.