The minimum you must know

People in Libya love peace. But the country has had significant difficulties over the past two decades anyway. Libya is a source of natural resources to western countries, and therefore of modest perceived importance to the United States. The United States therefore used to compete for influence there, by supporting proxies who unsuccessfully attempted to control the government. Russia and China helped all sides but were more closely associated with the other one.

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi ruled Libya until a decade ago. He seemed from media reports to be well liked by other world leaders including in the United States. But the United States treated Gaddafi cautiously anyway. They thought the country might be the source of instability for the United States. NATO started intervening in peaceful Islamic states after the airplane incidents on September 11, 2001. Gaddafi was told to relinquish his nuclear deterrence or face an uncertain future. He perhaps saved Libya from the NATO invasions experienced in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria by acquiescing. But he was later deposed anyway by internal groups supported by NATO. The country attempted to create internal stability ever since.

Russia requested peace talks for Libya at the United Nations almost every year since the end of Gaddafi's rule. China has done more rhetorically for Libyan peace than perhaps any other nation. And peace is very important to Islamic groups that only respond well to that type of encouragement. But the countries and faithful Libyans were not believed. There hasn't been a corresponding rhetorical effort for Libyan peace from NATO states, which have been focused elsewhere. But certainly there can be - and probably will be - a consistent effort for peace in the future. This writer believes that NATO media will gladly support all efforts for peace.

Some African nations successfully deterred Europe away in the mid 1900s from colonization. Libya was one of them, achieving independence in 1951. Libya's geographical location makes the nation's freedom symbolically important to the rest of the continent. Freedom from European rule is critical to populations and governments throughout Africa. And Libya is both one of the few tolerating unwanted military interventions, and one of the geographically closest African countries to Europe. So while presumably the entire African Union wants peace for Libya... this writer imagines that the country enjoys the full support of the entire continent in deterring unwanted settlement there anyway.

This writer believes that the United States and Europe can achieve heartfelt credibility and be welcomed anyway simply by approaching their affairs entirely diplomatically instead of militarily. Libyan proxies were not an effective way for previous administrations to balance power for the United States with Russia and China. That was a thoughtless use of NATO personnel in previous decades, in this writer's opinion. All countries nowadays can support international efforts for peace at the United Nations instead. The Islamic government probably (either quietly or publicly) hopes all sides will peacefully surrender to one another, consistent with the Islamic faith, and with the minimum foreign involvement in state administration possible.

Libya had initial challenges forming a government after Gaddafi. There was a security competition there. But the country is evolving successfully. Libya has a democratically elected government with exemplary representation at the United Nations. The government there says they only seek peace.