Why Libya?

[Joelcool7]

Skeeuk said:

 

why not north korea? or even china abuses

Why not North Korea, North Korea has one of the largest armies in the world I believe it is over 2-million last I heard. Also North Korea has enough fire power to obliterate South Korea. If the US or any world power attacked North Korea it would be a blood bath. Also while North Korea has killed citizens and imprisons tons, they have not gone genocidal to my knowledge. But an action again North Korea would destabalize the region and kill thousands to millions of people.

China, another of the worlds largest armies. China has nukes and sub's and a very capable air force. Also China is a world super power. If the US attacked China I'm sure Russia would intervene. Also China is a member of the UN Security Council so the UN would never condone an attack or No-Fly Zone over China. Essentially such moves would destroy the UN and could lead to another world war.

Libya is do able, their Government is an enemy of the US and the army does not have the clought to start WWIII. Also many of Libya's leaders defected and a huge portion of the armed forces. So its not even going to war against a country. The US Fifth fleet is nearby and European countries are close enough to launch air raids. Its is a very containable situation.

DarkCronos said:

let's be straight: it's all about oil.

it's true that gheddafi is a cruel dictator and it is very likely to kill everyone in his way, but tens of genocides are ongoing in this moment all over the world and nobody cares.

but libya has got oil. i think it's the biggest african oil productor.

and up until now 60% of the libyan oil was sold to italy, due to historical reasons (libya was once an italian colony, there are italian oil companies in libya) and political reasons (berlusconi is not the first italian leader to be a personal friend of gheddafi).

whe the revolt started france and england supported the rebels because they hope to get a bigger share of lybian oil in compensation. italy is in because we don't want france and england to take all of the oil, and i think USA is in because when  gheddafi started winning against the rebels he said he was displeased with the western countries and maybe he should have started selling libyan oil to india, china and russia, which i don't think is in the usa's interest.

Everyone and oil. For some reason I hear people saying Afghanistan and Iraq were about oil. Yes Libya is the largest oil producer in Africa. However Libya accounts for around 4% of the world's oil supply. Syria and Iran to my knowledge produce far more oil then Libya. Iran and Syria are also enemies of the United States and with Israel's backing the US could invade either one of them.

Also protestors are being attacked in Both Syria and Iran. The US could easily enter those conflicts and secure far larger oil reserves then wasting time and money on Libya. Infact Saudi Arabia already increased its oil production to make up for Libya's loss. So the same amount of oil is being produced with or without Libya.

What good does 4% of the worlds oil supply do the US? Now if Saudi Arabia began to fall and the US sent troops to support the regime, that would be about oil. Libya is not a big enough producer to justify billions of dollars in fighting. Also alot of western companies were operating in Libya so the oild was coming none the less!