Quote (Goomshill @ Sep 14 2023 10:37pm)
Qaddafi was a staunch socialist whos Jamahiriya was based on public works with a particular focus on irrigation, water pipelines and dams. Since the Arab Spring, Qaddafi's greatest achievement in the "Great Man-Made River", the largest aqueduct / pipeline system in the world, has fallen into neglect and dysfunction with something like a third of the wells already dismantled and others being seized by the rival factions. Not helped by NATO bombing important parts of its infrastructure that never got replaced, because we're the good guys. Assad didn't build his regime on enforcing strict architectural codes to prevent earthquake deaths any more than Erdogan did, funny that.
Its a pretty direct line from "America kills the guy who famously championed civil engineering projects" to "failure of civil engineering projects from neglect causes the deaths of tens of thousands of people". Also that whole part where their country is a total shithole in general thanks to Obama
Aren't we talking about a dam built in 1970? So nothing to do with "Gadhafi's greatest achievement" as you put it, can't even believe that is a phrase but here we are.
A 53 year old dam. Or two dams afaik. And how long were people building houses in the potential flood plain? Are those houses of sound engineering?
I'd suggest the answers are, a long time and frankly no.
I can agree the infrastructure in Libya has suffered from the lack of stable government; The stretch I see here is blaming the tragedy solely on the US as if there are not multiple other mitigating factors. Not least an unprecedented amount of rainfall in a short period of time,
"Libya’s National Meteorological Centre said that the storm reached a peak in northeastern Libya on 10 September, with strong winds of 70 - 80 km/h. This caused communications interruption, the fall of electricity towers and trees. Torrential rains of between 150 - 240 mm caused flash floods in several cities, including Al-Bayda, which recorded the highest daily rainfall rate of 414.1 mm (from 10 Sep 8am to 11 Sep 8am). The National Meteorological Centre said this was a new rainfall record.
Entire neighborhoods in Derna disappeared, along with their residents swept away by water after two ageing dams collapsed making the situation catastrophic and out of control, said the Libyan meteorological service."
So at bold, no. That isn't true. Is there a factor of blame on the US, yes. Is it the direct cause. No.
Its important to remember Libyans killed Gaddafi and at a point it falls on people to govern and organise themselves; And I think that is an evident problem in many countries formerly part of the Ottoman empire in North Africa and the Middle east. They lack the state institutions and democratic structures to succeed post dictatorship.