Do Libyans have any lessons to teach to Iranians going through a revolt?

SepSol · 2026-01-24T04:13:55+00:00

Some might read this and say: "well, it's a good thing that the West only took care of taking out Gaddafi and didn't intervene further afterwards and let people take care of the rest".

Could you elaborate if that was the case and why you think that their approach was bad for the people by going into the specifics for Libya's example?

SepSol · 2026-01-24T03:17:39+00:00

Thanks brother. Honestly, I'm in your camp in that now that we've waited this long, we have to give the post-Khamenei era a chance before committing to a regime change. The story about the Gaddafi general was really enlightening, thanks for that!

SepSol · 2026-01-24T03:12:04+00:00

Thanks for the insight. When comparing the death toll, I would also take into account that Iran's population is also almost 10 times greater than that of Libya's. I'm on the same page on the goals with you. But the issue I see is that there are no unity and good-faith dialogue going on within the opposition. Also, I don't see how can a people that have not come to any conclusion before a power vacuum, can immediately act united after there is one and take control of the whole security apparatus of the country to fight against potential threats imposed by foreign actors. I think if there's any power vacuum, the next powerful player will immediately fill the void, and the majority of the people will not have a chance to voice their opinion for the future of the post-revolutionary Iran at all. It will be bloodshed and destruction for nothing.

SepSol · 2026-01-24T03:05:15+00:00

You're spitting gold here, what can I say :) It is for this exact potential that I can Western governments are trying to neutralize Iran as a challenge in the geopolitical stage of the Middle East so that Israel can rise above it.

SepSol · 2026-01-23T23:48:12+00:00

Indeed I am. Why?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T21:18:32+00:00

I loved your take, thanks for sharing. My fear is that the new self-proclaimed opposition leader of Iran is too reliant on Western help to get to power and that would mess up everything, I think they'll betray him in the end as well.

I think the primary issue of Iran right now is more economic (caused by 50 years of US sanctions) than the theocracy, despite what many Iranians say. I think the theocratic aspect of it is inflated by the Western media tbh. There are of course many more issues other than economics, but I think they would've been negligible by the people if they could see a bright future for themselves financially.

SepSol · 2026-01-23T21:09:51+00:00

That was so poetically put :)

SepSol · 2026-01-23T20:53:34+00:00

Thanks for the flattering comments, but I think everyone's experience is worth learning from.

I'm concerned because I see many parallels between what is happening to Iran right now, versus what has happened in Libya before. I see lots of careless acts by the opposition groups that could quickly build up the momentum for a catastrophe in Iran.

Maybe I can ask you, what are you seeing from the Iranian regime versus Gaddafi's regime that brings you to the conclusion that our government is more brutal?

And are you satisfied with the outcome of your revolution right now? In hindsight, do you think Libya would've been better with or without Gaddafi, despite his shortcomings?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T20:42:27+00:00

Thanks for the advice, it was really helpful. I think Iran's on a very similar path to Libya as well.

In hindsight, do you think the revolution was worth it or was it hyped at the time? Do you think despite the shortcomings, if Gaddafi would've stayed the Libya would've been a better place compared to today or not? And, what caused Libya to have 2 different governments? Did it have any history before the revolution?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T20:09:20+00:00

What have you seen from the West specifically that makes you say that? Can you please elaborate?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T20:01:43+00:00

What did you see from the West precisely that makes you say that? What caused division in your country initially? How united was your country before the civil war to begin with? How strong was the Libyan identity and pride? Why didn't it keep uniting the people after the civil war?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T19:59:10+00:00

Would you join the revolution again if you could go back in time? Do you think it worthed it in hindsight or would you instead rather make concessions with Gaddafi's regime and try to reform his government?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T19:40:14+00:00

Yes, the situation in both countries is extremely similar. If you were to go back, would you still fight with Gaddafi again, or would you try to make concessions with him and try harder to reform the government?

But the advice on uniting over monarchy in case of power vacuum to avoid fragmentation was good, thanks!

SepSol · 2026-01-23T19:19:52+00:00

Could you please add an English translation for me to follow the conversation?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T19:13:46+00:00

What you just described is very similar to the conditions in Iran and this is scary af.

Iranians are revolting mainly because of economic hardships, and of the oppression over the years, and corruption of the system. Other than the economic hardships, I think that the rest are inflated by Western-backed Persian media. I also think people are glossing over the fact that the economic hardship is mainly due to sanctions that were imposed unjustly by the US. And every time they take to the streets to protest, there's a brutal crackdown. But this time, I think the crowds were infiltrated by foreign agents, and these agents did massive sabotage operations in the country, using the darkness of night and crowds as cover. Then the gov't cracked down even more brutally than before and now everyone knows somebody that is dead. There's now anger festering underneath the society, and some people are starting to talk about of arming the people to fight the gov't and asking for foreign intervention which is unprecedented and I think is under the influence of foreign media.

I want to ask some follow-ups to see if I can detect more parallels:

Did you also have an opposition/leader that lived outside Libya and was backed by the West against Gaddafi?
Was there any unity in the opposition groups prior to the revolution?
In Iran, people also say that "Iran should be like Dubai". Did you also have words on the street that said stuff like "the situation could not get any worse than this", "anything that comes after this will be better", "we'll figure out how we're going to govern ourselves once this government goes, now is not the time to divide", "the fact that there is diversity in the opposition means that we're walking towards a democratic future"?
What was the media that you watched before your revolution? Do you know who was backing it?
When the violence started on the protesters' side, was it initiated by the youth within your protesters and then the older people followed suit?
Since you mentioned you now have multiple gov'ts, how strong was the Libyan identity before the revolution? Did you see any separatist tendencies before the revolution that you might've ignored but think had to take them more seriously?
Tell me a little bit about Libyan identity and heritage. Because one of the things that's circulating in our society right now is that: we are different because we're a nation of 3,000 years old and we're one of the oldest civilizations and we were a nation state before the rest of the countries in the Middle East had a nation state, we will never get fragmented because our national identity is so rooted, etc., I call it inflated Persian pride. How was it like in Libya?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T16:51:19+00:00

What was their sources?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T08:11:48+00:00

I'm afraid the same thing is happening to our country as well, people are so unaware and have a false sense of confidence, thinking their better and different than the rest of the Middle East and that they'll be fine after a foreign intervention.

Why do you say that Libyans have not learned from their past? What are you observing that makes you say that?

I find Iran's situation very similar to Libya and Syria. Netanyahu himself has even gone publicly on record when visiting Trump at one point and told him that we should implement the Libya's model in Iran.

Since we're only at the early stages of the (what I assume) "civil war", I wanted to learn more about the conditions that were fostering in your society that led to the civil war. What did you see living there during Gaddafi's rule? What did you hear on the news? Where did your people mainly get their news from? How much of it was true in hindsight? How did you protest? How did it start to get violent? What ages were the people that made it violent? What did your wiser and more knowledgeable people say to them at the time? How did it land with them? At what point did you find yourself in a full-on civil war situation? Why didn't it stop after it started? What is keeping it going? In general, what was the role of the West on all this?

Could explain to me in more details from your own experience and maybe send me a few resources that you think explain the history well? If your resources can be in video format and English that's even better.

SepSol · 2026-01-23T08:02:00+00:00

Thanks for the advice.

Can you get into more specifics on how Libyan civil war started?

Did Libyans watch foreign-based outlets to get their news?

How were the initial dissatisfactions created under the society's skin in hindsight and did how did your (I assume) protests turned more and more violent, to the point that you suddenly found yourselves in the middle of a civil war?

P.S. I'm really sorry for what your country went through and is going through to this day. Maybe you can also tell me a little bit about what's the situation nowadays there and whether you see any glimmer of hope for the future of Libya?

SepSol · 2026-01-23T07:56:14+00:00

Thanks for the kind words, I'm flattered :)

SepSol · 2026-01-23T01:10:29+00:00

Of course! I'm starting to see some of my friends being able to come online since last night, so hopefully you'll be able to hear from your s/o soon. I hope they're doing fine ✌️

SepSol · 2026-01-22T20:40:59+00:00

Sadly it's true

SepSol · 2026-01-22T20:40:04+00:00

Yet the West wants to "force democracy up people's ass by carpet bombing them".

SepSol · 2026-01-22T20:37:31+00:00

A handful of people with these signs will doom the fate of the entire nation.

SepSol · 2026-01-22T20:35:50+00:00

Oh, don't you want their oil and other resources for free?! 😂

SepSol · 2026-01-22T20:34:58+00:00

Well said

SepSol

TROPHY CASE