But for Libyans rebelling against Gaddafi, the reasons for their revolt are simpler. They are tired of their flamboyant leader and his repressive policies that have failed to provide enough jobs in a country awash with oil wealth. Back at the parade, I counted the tanks. There was not much else to do as the endless rows passed, chewing up the tarmac into dust and grit. It was a traditional show of strength, though many of the Russian Ts and Ts, outdated even then, sputtered out clouds of black exhaust.
At least one stalled before restarting. Then I had my first -- fairly close -- encounter with Gaddafi. I was working for a magazine that covered Middle East affairs at the time. I am not a professional photographer, and not a very good amateur one either. So I queued up with the serious snappers. He wore a smart white military jacket, with a breast full of medals, white cap and his trademark dark glasses.
He has always been exuberant in his style -- one day flowing tribal robes, another military garb and then on others his swish, and I suspect Italian-made, suits. That day was no exception. The project, begun in the s, now feeds water to some areas.
Instead, they are full of youths, often well educated, trying to find jobs. Many have now finally tired of waiting for Gaddafi to deliver on his economic commitments. Libya at that time was under an air embargo, imposed after Tripoli was accused of bombing a Pan Am jumbo over Scotland. Saif was wrong, of course, and rebels announced the violent killing of his father on October But in the end, Libyans did not buy the brand of self-absorbed, Cold War nationalism he was selling.
The tasks for the NTC are daunting. With a small population and vast oil wealth, Libya begins in a stronger position than its debt-laden Arab neighbours. Accused of siding with Gaddafi, community seeks national reconciliation in order to return to their town. In retrospect, it was that final battle in Sirte that prefigured so much of what would come later including the internecine rivalries between east and west, and rival cities.
It would be a conflict too that would cast a long shadow for international relations, and for the reputations of some. For former French president Nicholas Sarkozy, the fall out would be more personal and serious: seeing him embroiled in accusations that he had taken campaign money from Gaddafi for his election. By the chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee, the Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, was equally scathing of the intervention backed by the then Tory prime minister David Cameron.
The reality is that the tensions in Libya, perhaps with the exception of Syria, were always less well comprehended than the drivers of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, where established — if suppressed — political movements were far better understood. The large weapons stocks was held by the regime were rapidly dispersed contributing to the destabilisations of the wider region, not least Mali. Tens of thousands of African migrants in Libya, no longer welcome, were displaced at the start of a complex migration crisis that would later see Libya become a pathway into Europe for large scale human trafficking.
They were all risks presciently described in in Foreign Affairs magazine by Zahia Zoubir who warned that Libya risked fracturing amid the competition among armed groups.
At times the fracturing harked back to a pre-modern era of city states each with their own army, guarded by checkpoints and city gates thrown up out of truck containers and scrap metal.
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