Gaddafi’s death taught autocrats to keep WMDs and crush uprisings

Evidence

For many other world leaders, especially but not only the autocrats, these shocking images offered a few lessons. First, if you have weapons of mass destruction—don’t give them up. Second, foreign powers will use legitimate or apparently legitimate uprisings as an excuse to push their own agendas. And finally, whatever you do, don’t let this kind of uprising win—unless you want to end up like Gaddafi. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 243

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: This inversion — that humanitarian intervention taught brutal lessons to every autocrat in the world — connects to the book’s global theme of protest blowback and the Libya case as a turning point that shaped future crackdowns.