Libyans look like they are in horrible shape, and as they finish their civil war they are. And we are all happy Gaddafi, while still at large, is not in power. But unlike anything you can imagine, Libyan finances are not that bad. Libya is no Egypt. They have over $200bn in assets of which $165bn are abroad. They are only 6 million people and have no national debt. As a result each Libyan has assets of $30K. Americans instead have around $50K of debt per capita and Europeans $30K. But Americans and Europeans, paid dearly for the liberation of Libyans, not as much of course as the failed wars of Iraq and Afghanistan but still significant. Should us in EU and USA stop fighting other people’s wars and focus on rebuilding our economies? I think so. We should emulate George W Bush who had everyone contribute to the cost of the Gulf War and as a result it was short and relatively inexpensive as described in the first link. My view is that from now on, if we deal with wealthy nations like Libya I think we should only intervene only to tilt the balance and only if we get repaid. And in cases in which true humanitarian reasons are at stake we should do this together with many nations and sharing the costs.

Follow Martin Varsavsky on Twitter: twitter.com/martinvars

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Ali Parandeh on August 24, 2011  · 

Current cancer treatment methods and drugs are a good example of a war scenario. Bombard an area or type of cells and destroy whatever you can in the “hope” of destroying the malicious source. In contrast advances in genetic engineering allow us to deal with the route and source of the issue.
Going to war for humanitarian reasons are two contradictory words. similar to the famous American “friendly fire”. War/fight is the animalistic reaction when we “think” every other method has failed. Struggle over power.
Your question: Should we in EU and USA stop fighting other people’s wars and focus on rebuilding our economies?
The wars consequence for any country on either end is devastating. If the Iraq war cost US in excess of 1$ trillion, I am sure the money could have been put to better use in order to topple Saddam and his regime.
I have often argued with friends that in these cases, if you drain a country of its brains, then the country will practically come to cease. What’s a country with no work force or a country that no one wants to live in! Imagine what EU & US could do with 1$ trillion and the best pool of scientists and other academics and entrepreneurs. Of course it is not that feasible in practice, but hopefully will serve as a better starting point than war.

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Moffe on August 30, 2011  · 

How many average Libyans are there?

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