The era that transformed this isolationist, meager existence was European colonialism which began making inroads into several middle eastern countries in the late eighteenth century. Britain was the first to arrive with it’s imperialist mentality as the most advanced nation with wealth to spare in developing other areas of the globe for future profit from what ever local resources might be obtainable. The British’s arrival to Iraq and Egypt were the first of any such occupation in the early period of Imperialism to the area. As the pattern grew, France and Italy also became major participants in claiming distant lands for their lucrative potential. Italy claimed Libya rather late during the colonial movement which set the African country between British controlled Egypt and French Algeria to the west.

At the time nothing in the way of valuable resources had been discovered in Libya while Egypt provided the important Suez waterway permitting passage from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and on the Atlantic Ocean. Algeria, was also as Libya, a baron land without nearly any resources to provide although it was considered an extension of the territorial claims that the French held over Morocco in conjunction with Spain just a little farther to the west. For Libya, for more than a century prior to the oil discovery, a scarce economy had consisted upon a destitute export business of scrap metal and limited agriculture such as Marcona almonds.

In 1969 a decade had passed with the nation under the rule of…. A young general, Muammar Qaddafi, who had been brought up deprived of nearly any possessions but was provided an education that required traveling a far distance weekly to attend school while he would stay in a ramshackle hut during the week and return to the meager home of his family over the weekend. Upon completion, military service was the suitable path for the young man who was considered gifted, charismatic and firmly grounded in the nostalgic ways of the Bedouin desert tradition. He showed a despising attitude towards the western world who he felt didn’t understand an Arab way of life.

Upon being sent to Britain as a young man to conduct further military training by special forces he showed a disregard for his English speaking superiors by claiming to not speak their language although he did. In returning to Libya to dedicate years of service as a commander in the national army he foresaw the opportunity in 1969 to stage a coup that would conceivably topple the staggering government then in power and proclaim himself to the national forefront. The plan worked and many people were encouraged by the bravery and principals that he spoke of including a Pan Arab existence where the neighboring countries could work amongst one another to expand the regal Bedouin standard to something greater than it had ever been. Such claims were highly regarded by people ignorant to listen.

During the dictator’s early years he managed to negotiate better payment terms with the countries that Libya was exporting it’s oil resources to which significantly boosted the nation’s wealth. The pledge to provide assistance to his country’s people became a priority which to some extent was a commendable success as government medical care was provided, stipend monthly salaries were common and infrastructure took a modern tone. The rule he conducted over the years though became ridden with untraceable sums of money not being managed for the country’s benefit and indisputably going into the funding of an extravagant, royal lifestyle for himself. The relations with other countries was tenuous at best but more often simply criminal. The state sponsoring of terrorist groups including NRA, PLO, Hezbollah, Sandinistas, and countless others in the eighties was a dilemma that seriously effected global affairs.

President Reagan was one of the more responsive of world leaders to take action against the megalomaniacal figure with too much wealth and misdirected morality to be in charge of controlling a country. The United States bombed a major government building in 1989 in attempt to disrupt the structure of his rule after … The horrific bombing of a commercial jetliner that took place by two suspected Libyan nationals in 1989 over Lockerbie Scotland while in route from Paris to New York was given sanctioned support by the awful ruler. Amidst his government protection, secrecy, manipulative rule and ability to lead a wickedly non discernable style of office involved deceptive reappointments, nepotism, and unsubstantiated death sentences of treason. A total of … coup attempts are said to have been orchestrated against him.

For the forty two years of a non relenting prevalence for egregious, despotic behavior, the people of Libya began to despise that so little benefit had been gained by them despite the significant wealth amassed by the select powers of Qaddafi's elite circle. The lead up to the Arab Spring revolts can be said to have been an approaching situation for years or even decades prior. For the people though who had been brought up to maintain a respect for their nation and by the same token that of it’s leader, outspoken criticism was a non occurrence for fear of the disastrous repercussions. It would seemingly take the circumstances of the modern world in which we now live where global exposure to international standards of living including the comforts of democratic institutions and new capabilities from technology for people of countries like Egypt and Libya to observe how repressed they have been for so long. This response from those who’ve been deprived of such freedoms came in the form of the Arab Spring.

Egypt by comparison, another dictatorship hadn’t been under a veil near to the extent of Libya where secrecy and nonpublic policies have been the only consistent rule to government during the reign of Qaddafi. Hosni Mubarak rather led his country which managed close ties with western countries and despite his tightly orchestrated, enriching style of rule, nonetheless provided a far greater record of national compassion and international cooperation.

Once the demonstrations began to take place in a rapidly growing manner, Libya was quicker in turning to violence by both government forces sent to halt the activity but also the response from hardliner activists who reacted on a far more hostile scale than Egypt. Thus the rapidity of Libya’s situation by February 22nd had advanced to the point where soon several hundred members of a rogue rebel opposition had formed and pronounced their objective to take necessary action to bring change to the country’s government. They referred to themselves as the shabab militia. The majority of these volunteers had no experience in such a conflict. Some old, local veterans of the national army who had taken to the cause of the demonstrations for several days, became supportive of the movement and provided some cooperation to the determined fighters by supplying individual firepower and instructing on the basics of using the weapons.

The rapidity of Libya’s situation in mid February had by the 22nd of the month, advanced to the point where soon some several hundred of committed members to the newly formed rebel fighters had pronounced their cause to take violent action in a power struggle that would invariably ensue against the national army.

It would seem that the force of young, ideological instigators calling for change would be of hardly any resistance to the properly trained armed forces of Qaddafi’s national army . What the rebel group had in it’s favor early on though was credibility from the city of Benghazi who had long held a distaste for Qaddafi‘s rule. Many of the older generation of residents, held memories of repressive crackdown’s from the 1970’s of any political dissent. The actions had left a bad impression upon some of this Benghazi generation, now who’s children had grown up to garner such disloyalty to the leadership in Tripoli five hundred miles to the west. The rebel group sought to be the bringers of change as international attention was capturing the tenacious determination of those who had begun leading protests with their lives on the line in hopes of bringing relief from an authoritative government.

Within Benghazi several of the city’s government landmarks became locations of protest with one important building being the Katib, a main security garrison in the city’s center where members of Qaddafi’s national personnel occupied offices. Exemplifying a sense of the disloyalty to Qaddafi in this city was the sudden turn of events when Libya’s interior minister working from the Katib building had grown sympathetic to the days of vehement protests outside. He became the first of any senior national official to defect in support of the opposition. Soon after, a contingent of forces for whom Funna Younnes encouraged to lend their support to the rebels, had also taken up the cause.

The Benghazi situation ensued in disruption as an assortment of rebel sympathizers and shahab members overran the Katib garrison. They loitered a small supply of weapons and other items left for the taking before the building was eventually set ablaze. A domino effect of other administrative buildings used as staff offices for members of Qaddafi’s national personnel met the same fate. Soon it was evident that the tide of Arab’s Muslim Spring movement had erupted into an all out incursion where the rebels had proven capable of taking control of the nation’s second largest city. A villa was burned that often was used by a once unpopular mayor of who had occupied her position for two terms in the eighties after being directly appointed by Qaddafi simply due to her strange reaction during a public hanging where she rushed to the victim’s hanging body to give a further downward tug. The dictator had viewed the action as a form of sincere loyalty worthy of a high office appointment.

Many of the city’s other monuments symbolizing the Italian occupation of a half century were quickly destroyed. Significant armaments from looted buildings including a stockyard of government SUVS trucks quickly became the property of the rebels. The forces would manage to put these possessions to immediate use as many of the vehicles were soon outfitted with machine gun turrets. Others were reserved for medical service or general transportation in a battle that would likely await them in the days ahead of what had began to appear as a national state of crisis for Qaddafi‘s government.

Images during the initial weeks of the ensuring conflict included the look of optimistic, determinism upon these groups of young men’s faces as they rode in the back of open aired trucks waving the Libyan flag above them as they moved through the desert. Their looming opposition in this confict though was the Libyan national army which had sizeable numbers of forces stationed in the capital and other areas several hundred miles from the rebel strong hold. Likely due to the quickness and uncertainty of what had erupted there an immediate force from hundred of miles away was rather slow to be deployed to quell the situation.

A response undoubtedly would be ordered but for which seemed to have been taken with moderate timidity owing somewhat to the reasons just mentioned as well as the international scrutiny likely to befall the dictator upon dispatching his army to engage in a major military conflict against his own people. Despite the unpredictable and clandestine ways of governing the nation, the perception cast by such major actions by Qaddafi have shown to carry an impact upon his decision making.

A closer outpost of national forces dispatched in response to the unrest in Benghazi was located in a region called Surt which is known for it’s tribal support for Qaddafi. This was the location, approximately xxx miles west of Tripoli where a large number of the forces would depart in route across the northern coastal road to face off against the uprising. Rebel momentum had reached some other small northeastern towns during this crucial early phase of unrest but much of the rest of Libya sat observantly from their normal state outside of the conflict zone casting their opinions within villages and small towns about what was unfolding in the northeast.

From Surt, the procession of armed forces began demonstrably making their way closer to the area of rebel occupied territory. First they arrived at the town of Brega on March 2nd. A mild standoff by a small group of rebels far from their more formidably entrenched redoubts within Benghazi posed light resistance that caused some deaths. Other northern coastal towns that stood between the encroaching army and Benghazi included Rans Lanuf, al Uqualay, and the closest of them all Ajdabiya, about twenty five miles west, as a likely last stand of defense before an enemy arrival. Often military efforts by the army wouldn’t begin prior to the afternoon. Announcements by the national force would sometimes offer a radio warning the rebels in the area to lay down their weapons less succumb to martyrdom of an unworthy and tyrannical cause. The steadfast determination of the rebels though as the only means to bring change to years of an inequitable living situation wasn’t about to be deterred by any half hearted conciliatory gestures from the force approaching closer towards their center of resistance.

By now, thousand of rebels had become located in the eastern city inhabited in familiar surroundings, equipped with significant fire power including shoulder fire rockets and their fleet of vehicles. On the front line, however, in the towns leading to the artery of rebel fighters was showing ineffectiveness as a resistance against the easterly encroachment. Often nothing more than a gathering of young men clinching rifles next to a makeshift outpost along the western border of these towns would serve as indication that the area had come to associate itself with the rebels.

In fact communication of orders and propaganda sent from Qaddafi’s general to his forces was misconstrued so that many of the soldiers understood their mission to be one of going and dispelling a group of radical, drug induced terrorists. Many of the army were unaware that a larger movement was underway with hopes of toppling the nation’s government.

On March 13th a force of small, rather ineffective fighters dispatched far outside of Benghazi maintained a position in the town of Brega. Rather undeterred, Qaddafi’s forces plowed through with aircraft dropping bombs, creating blazes upon the town’s more remote districts which led to an evident successful occupation by the army. The only other major town standing in line between there and the large rebel holdout was the city of Ajdabiya.

For nearly a month what had began as a popular disruption of activism had ensued into a looming, major military engagement and as the current situation indicated, a dangerous showdown between the two sides was becoming more likely. International attention focused on conditions there as news from Egypt centered around possible concessions by Hosni Mubarak that might lead to the end of the uprisings there. Further turmoil in Yeomen, the UAE and Syria was ongoing at the time and it all helped provoke a need for the western powers to intervene in coming to the aid of an aggrieved population who had taken monumental efforts to instill their advocacy for a democratic style of government.

It was with Libya that the NATO countries felt an immediate need to act in preventing a bloody national catastrophe. Many of the rebels had originally reasoned against the use of foreign intervention in hopes of reshaping the fate of their nation on their own. This sentiment was somewhat strengthened after the successful chain of events for the rebels in Benghazi and the recently defected coalition of agency personnel who might be able to mediate a plan for appointing a new leader.

Few former members of Qaddafi’s appointed government personnel had begun to establish a small coalition devoted to the rebel cause in hope of providing some structure for the first city of a new freely empowered Libya. This was merely hopeful optimism however, the threat of violence was imminent and the rebels now saw the need for international assistance to prevent the destruction of their city. France under the presidency of Francois Hollande presented the most cooperative position for aiding the rebel cause. Hillary Clinton as US secretary of defense required some convincing before she would agree to allow the US military to get involved.

The situations was becoming more desperate by the day and on March 15th, the last town of defense Ajdabiya, was quickly overrun by the army only provoking more concerted reactions for the eight hundred thousand residents of Benghazi. The panacea of newly assumed civic leaders and voices claiming rebel assurance began expressing doubt. Considering one’s own safety, many expounded the notion of fleeing east toward Egypt but other more determined activists tried convincing citizens to have faith in the newly orchestrated semblance of power which continued to call for a non militarily forced transition of leadership. Such hope was soon seen as nonexistent and keeping a city calm amidst the threat of a military making it’s forceful approach into the city with the only protection being in the hands of a rogue coalition of young fighters was nearly inconceivable.

Soon an air strike campaign from Libya’s army against parts of the city’s airport occurred. In response the United States and France demanded to hold a UN vote on the implementation of a no fly zone. With just enough approval votes, the decision passed and seemed to have a significant effect on the looming situation. Celebratory responses rang throughout the city upon the viewing of live news overages that the western governments had decided to come to the aid in opposing Qaddafi and his military’s assault on their city. Soon there after, the country’s foreign minister announced a unilateral truce and a cease fire of the national army’s attack.

A calm seemed to emanate from the announcement signaling a liklihood of an armistice that was to spare the populated city from the dreadful havoc of an embattled war. For the next day, a calm seemed to emanate with people returning to some normalcy, by entering shops and internet cafes under the presumed protection from France, the US and an apparent cease fire. But despite the rhetoric of halting Qaddafi’s forces, it became apparent that the requirement of the NATO forces to uphold the no fly zone would become necessary as the Libyan army had no intention of actually allowing the revolution to succumb to a win for the opposition.

Within twenty four hours, hundreds of national troops had made an aggressive arrival from Ajdabiya to inhabit a location just outside the city center of Benghazi. The forces struck unrepentantly with heavy power and tanks taking the university, the western neighborhoods and soon stood within very close proximity to the city center. The rebel response was immediate as they made movements in early morning hours to go and confront the new alarming situation. A response soon proceeded from nearby western aircraft firing missiles upon the army’s forces. In the following days French and US F14s would strike as would launches of naval tomahawk missiles upon the national military in the western edge of town. For about a week a routine of armed confrontation waged between the rebels, NATO and Libyan forces. The air defense would target locations around areas of the city to provide some cover for the rebels to engage in a ground assault after having sent heavy artillery into the core of the enemy positions. The effectiveness of such a bomb and attack strategy was powerful in holding ground but often provoked a counter attack from armed Libyan soldiers resulting in deaths for both sides.

Eventually on March 25th, the whole Qaddafi army had been forced back past the outer lying regions of Benghazi and was soon on a retreat passed Ajdabiya along the northern coastal roads that had provided their arrival route three weeks earlier. The conviction of victory was felt by the city after it found itself liberated from the nation’s official army. The western aided campaign to help counter the situation in the country certainly was the turning point for the Libyan people's push to overthrow the dictatorial government and position their nation for a free elections. However the time for the objectives of the opposition to come to fruition still had a ways to go particularly in the need for a then still largely empowered Qaddafi to either abdicate or be carried out of office.

The fight would prove to be far from over. As Benghazi had shown itself as the inspirational city in calling for ending forty two years of despotism, the rest of the nation particularly those within the capital city of Tripoli would need to share the views of the preliminary victors over how to answer the call for a major governmental transformation.

Without an on the ground military troop deployment of the NATO forces, it can be understood why the rebel forces would face considerable more challenges against a superior military enemy. For the rebels with their greatly indebted campaign to the aid of the French ad US Air support, the fight wouldn’t end in Benghazi. Encouraged by their victory over the eastern city, rebel forces intended to bring this fight across the desert to the capital city in Tripoli where surely a greater test of strength and hope for the Western nation’s uncompromising support would be required.

Since protests had began in mid February the capital of Tripoli had experienced it’s own amount of uprise. Areas within the city such as the dictator's palace Bab al-Azizya, the Green Square and… had emerged as centers of activity where some protestors began putting their lives at risk supporting the cause of Qaddafi’s removal from power. The rebel movement had even taken some form in Tripoli prior to NATO intervention in the east but the efforts in the capital city would soon develop greater momentum as the veracity of rebel and additional foreign military support indicated a committed involvement.

The US had mobilized eleven warships into Tripoli, three submarines, which had been augmented by eleven more ships from Italy, Britain, Canada and many French fighter jets patrolling the area in efforts to monitor the no fly zone of Libyan aircraft. The tomahawk missile attacks quickly began routine sequences of attack on small areas outside the city targeting strategic security interests such as the nation’s air defense systems. Throughout April periodic strikes continued along inland coastal regions with an focus on part of the Libyan Army’s presence in the westerly city of Surt from where the main troop deployment had been sent to quell the Benghazi forces. Additionally missile targets were substantially being placed on Misuratta, a town that came to be a conflict ridden zone between the rebel fighters and the National Army as the situation continued.

The extent of war power that was to be utilized as the front of the war was brought closer to the capital city was far more vigilant than had been given the opportunity for the national forces to deploy back east. As the stakes reached a much more serious level with major western military support, Libya’s national military was engaging a much heavier tactic. The daily reports of areas within Misurata and Tripoli that the rebel forces were trying to penetrate were often providing discouraging news of little ground being gained although contrary reports several days later often times reported on rebel success that offered evidence of forward momentum for a more galvanizing cause.

By early May the conflict was becoming a situation accepted by the people of the country who mostly seemed to have cast support behind the anti Libyan government cause. In Misurata, there continued to be a large enclave of Libyan forces whose firepower proved resilient for many weeks in protecting their fortification. NATO attacks continued though loosening the grip on this town as well as helping open parts of Tripoli to a more rebel inhabited area. People in interviews seemed dismayed that NATO wasn’t exerting more pressure to help in the cause of a swift overthrow of Qaddafi’s regime. Some had speculated that concern over who would fill the power vacuum upon the dictators’ toppling was a reason that swifter, more aggressive action wasn’t taken by the large deployment of NATO military resources.

Incidents had taken place where errant firings left unintended casualties at the hands of American Warships or French aircraft. On several occasions, rebel convoys were mistakenly struck seeming to cause if only a brief estrangement over the public’s opinion of the war. Any excuse to be used by the Libyan governing councils under the dictatorship propagated further criticism against the western intervention as an obvious indication for the opposition allied government’s desire to invade and exploit the country of its oil resources. But setbacks aside, the fight continued on.

In late May an attack on the Misuratta holdouts proved decisive in allowing the rebel contingency in that area to seize effective control over it. The Tripoli center remained obtuse. The population of 2 million in the city prevented frequent attacks, relegating the use of heavy artillery and missile support by NATO forces to less frequent and isolated targeted attacks. The concern of eliciting innocent civilian casualties at the hands of a foreign government's military was a constant concern.

Into the month of June, rebel forces persisted in the new heavy campaign against the state military. It began to be seen by many around the country and particularly eye accounts by the people of Tripoli that the national government was loosing the war.

An attack on the compound in the early morning hours of August of Baz Al-Azazi received major media attention as news related to the pursuit of Qaddafi’s death began to take center stage. Although the death of the beleaguering dictator didn’t result from that attack, an up close look within some of the grandeur of the ruler’s residence was provided that only seemed to stoke greater sympathy for the rebel campaign. Footage revealed the network of escape tunnels dug deeply into the compound. Palatial elegance which surely no one had ever second guessed was for the first time brought into live view as images illuminated the magnitude of these hidden splendors which had been assembled for much of the forty two years of unjust reign by the country's leader.

August was the month when the rebels effectively seized the city of Tripoli. A National Transitional Council had previously been formed where strategic efforts were being laid for the hand over in power to an influential, credible figure who vehemently opposed the rule of the still then at large Qaddafi. As the rebels had taken control of the capital, it was assured that the ultimate victory had nearly come. It would take maintaining a stable position and relying upon additional firepower from coalition forces to maintain their position and to prove that the nation had been ultimately taken into the hands of the tenacious liberators of Libya. The final occurrence to conclude the five months of hard fought embattlement was the capture or surrender of the tyrannical ruler.

It wouldn’t by until late September when an envoy of fleeing Libyan military trucks in the town of Surtz would be fired upon by a missile which was followed immediately by an up close encounter from a rebel patrol who quickly began firing heavy weapons upon the uniformed soldiers. A bloody assault ensued that left several of the national army men dead while several of the others had made a brief escape into an irrigation and water site where several large concrete pipes protruded from the ground. As a rifle toting rebel solder approached the site, a National Army man emerged from a large cyndrical pipe, pleading his surrender and indicating repeatedly that ‘his master was here’ and then emphatically expressing, ‘Muammar Qaddafi is here‘. The following response of rebel soldiers can now be retold in an accurate account from the several camera phone videos that filmed the next few minutes of activity. A group of rebels ran towards the surrounded highly prized target and opportunities were taken in delivering several blows from the rebel’s rifle stocks. Rebels were shouting, some saying this is from the people of Missratta. Others yelled from a distance to keep him alive.

The loathed former dictator had been pulled from a drainage pipe surrounded by the opposition forces whom he likely thought would never have a chance in overthrowing his protected, covert government operation. The video portrays him being carried away to a nearby rebel army base where an onsite doctor provided a prompt declaration of death with the cause being a fatal gunshot to the head.