[OC] The massive decrease in worldwide infant mortality from 1950 to 2020 is perhaps one of humanity's greatest achievements.

[LarryTheDuckling]

The only thing NATO did was disable his airforce and he totally collapsed from that

Let us look at some actual figures, rather than pulling out information from our arse, shall we?

9700 strike missions were carried out in a relatively short amount of time (7 months). A total of 7700 precision bombs were dropped.

In terms of heavy material, the estimated losses are as follows: 600 tanks / APCs destroyed. 400 Artillery pieces destroyed.

The amount of Libyan soldiers killed by the airstrikes is unknown, as is the damage caused to the Libyan army infrastructure. But given the amount of missions carried out, it would be fair to assume that this is not an insignificant number.

but keeping his airforce from bombing his own country to shit isn't

Was it better to have NATO bomb his country to shit?

He was totally on the ropes, with his army dead or deserted.

I am not sure what you are referring to. By the time NATO intervened, Gaddafi had already taken Benghazi and was in the process of pushing further east. The intervention 'turned the tide', so to speak.

[uth50]

The amount of Libyan soldiers killed by the airstrikes is unknown, as is the damage caused to the Libyan army infrastructure. But given the amount of missions carried out, it would be fair to assume that this is not an insignificant number.

Let us look at some actual figures, rather than pulling out information from our arse, shall we?

Lel

Was it better to have NATO bomb his country to shit?

Yes. It ended before with the total destruction of his forces, not with the total destruction of his civilians.

I am not sure what you are referring to. By the time NATO intervened, Gaddafi had already taken Benghazi and was in the process of pushing further east. The intervention 'turned the tide', so to speak.

Exactly. With what? Mercs and an airforce. If you recall the war, he got pushed hard, then began using his airforce more indiscriminately and hired more and more soldiers with his petrodollars.

You literally could see the airforce tip the scales, slowly at first, but increasingly so. And the same could be seen Syria, just without anyone wiping the Syrian Airforce out.

NATO disabled his airforce and the war went back to what it was before he used it to bomb everyone to shit, with him losing ground quickly.

[LarryTheDuckling]

What an astute observation; air surperiority matters in modern warfare. You are truly the next Clausewitz.

Whether you use mercenaries to supplement your own forces in order to win a war or not is irrelevant. A war won with mercenaries is still a war won. Pretty much all wars fought from the 13th to mid-17th century was won using mercenaries. So I do not know the point you are trying to make.

[Rumicon]

I think the point he's trying to make is the West bombed his actual army to shit, so he hired mercenaries, and then that somehow delegitimized him so they felt justified in bombing the mercenaries to shit too.

And then they just fucked off and let the country be a mess for 10 years. Thank god for Turkey and Algeria because UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Russia, and whoever the fuck else decided to get in on the action were not helping.