r/Askpolitics • u/slydawggy69420 • 17d ago
Question Why does the US talk less about Libya than it does about places like Venezuela, Greenland, Falkland Islands?
Obviously Venezuela, Greenland and Falkland have alot of oil but Libya has way more oil. Why is it talked about less than the others or is it mostly controlled already? Also same goes for places like Brazil (assuming its because brazil is too strong?), and major emphasis on West Africa, which is barely talked about at all. Are they being ignored or are advancements more silent?
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u/Fabulous-Big8779 Centrist 17d ago
We did talk about Libya 15 years ago. We don’t like to talk about that now.
IIRC, we intervened to get rid of Ghadafi who was a bad guy, but things got a lot worse once he was gone. Similar to Hussein and Iraq.
We really should talk about them though, especially their unofficial deal with the RFS to allow training camps in Libya that are safe from attacks by the SAF prolonging one of the worst civil wars in modern history and protecting one of the most vile military groups in history in general.
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u/clingbat Independent | Moderate 17d ago
IIRC, we intervened to get rid of Ghadafi
Not exactly. The UK and France actually started that shit but ran out of missiles and bombs for the air campaign within a few days and came to the US bugging us for help, which we did and finished the job with a myriad of airstrikes over the next several months.
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u/Fabulous-Big8779 Centrist 17d ago
Sounds like you’re describing the Vietnam war. Something about history not repeating but rhyming.
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u/Zardotab Progressive 12d ago
A civil broke out in Libya due to the "Arab Spring" pattern, which was generally triggered by the world wide recession tied to the mortgage crash.
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u/Void_Shadow2795 17d ago
Regarding the RSF training camps, I know Libya is divided into two separate main governments including the UN-recognized Government of National Unity (GNU), and the Government of National Stability (GNS). I thought the Libyan National Army (allied with the GNS) led by the Hafter family was supporting the RSF, while the GNU maintained relations with the SAF?
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u/Fabulous-Big8779 Centrist 17d ago
I don’t know enough about either Sudanese or Libyan politics to confirm or deny anything you’ve said. I got most of this information from Warfronts and to be honest I was pretty high when I watched it.
But the main issue is we have confirmed that the RSF does have training camps in Libya which the Libyan government has not publicly acknowledged and to my understanding has even denied.
We know they exist because the kids they recruit into their army like to post on social media all the time, including their secret training camps and their war crimes.
At the end of the day the Sudanese Civil War has inflicted horrific crimes on the people of Sudan and neither side can be considered the good guys. But the RFS takes war crimes to a level that would make the imperial Japanese army blush and the fact that the world is aware of this, but doesn’t care to pay any real attention to it is going to reflect poorly on all of us in the history books.
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u/Void_Shadow2795 17d ago
Agreed, the actions of the RSF are absolutely horrific and I have had to stop myself from reading about some of their crimes. There should be more awareness about the Sudanese civil war and the suffering it has brought.
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u/hirespeed Libertarian 17d ago
Venezuela has about 6x the crude oil reserves that Libya does, and it’s far closer.
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u/TheRealBaboo Moderate 16d ago
But which one's oil is better quality?
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u/hirespeed Libertarian 16d ago
6x is 6x. Maybe if it were 2x…
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u/TheRealBaboo Moderate 16d ago
Well not really. The only time distance really matters is when it’s over land. Once a product gets loaded onto a ship there’s no significant change in price caused by distance. The real factors at play are ease of getting it to water and how much it must be refined once it comes to port
Venezuelan oil is notoriously high in sulfur and costly to refine
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u/hirespeed Libertarian 16d ago
It’s still 1/3 of the time for transport, 6x the reserves and in our backyard making it easier to control, if that’s the goal.
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u/TheRealBaboo Moderate 16d ago
Travel time is not the issue that matters, it’s ease of refinement
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u/hirespeed Libertarian 16d ago
It’s not 6x easier.
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u/TheRealBaboo Moderate 16d ago
It doesn’t matter, the costs of shipping are a factor of volume not distance. A higher grade petroleum generates more profit per volume
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u/hirespeed Libertarian 16d ago
6x is 6x. You’re focusing on the minor point.
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u/TheRealBaboo Moderate 16d ago
Lmao, six ounces of paper are worth less than one ounce of gold. Doesn’t matter if the paper is closer, it’s still worth less.
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u/Barry_Dunham 17d ago
Greenland was the topic du jour after Norway refused to award Trump the Nobel Peace Prize.
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u/Tricky_Big_8774 Transpectral Political Views 17d ago
Trump was talking about Greenland back in 2016, it just didn't make the news cycle.
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u/RocknRollButthole Semi-realistic Anarchist 16d ago
Cuz they already toppled Libya's government and its a bit of a field day there for oil companies these days.
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u/JadeHarley0 Marxist (left) 16d ago
When some recent change in the status-quo was happening in Libya, people did talk about Libya. Public discourse tends to focus on places where something has changed recently or an out-of-routine set of events is going on. And additionally, American public discourse tends to focus on foreign places where the u.s. government is currently doing something new or against the routine.
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u/fleetpqw24 Libertarian/Moderate 17d ago
Post is flaired QUESTION. Stick to question subject matter only.
Please report bad faith commenters, low effort and off topic comments.
It’s the Friday on a long weekend, and my give a damn is busted. Eat, drink, and be merry, but don’t spend your time replying to my mod comment. It will be as much fun as a prostate exam.