Engagement in Libya was and remains the right answer

In 2008, I packed my bags to head off to Tripoli, where I began my current vocation of advocating for Western diplomatic, economic, cultural, and humanitarian engagement in Libya. Ethan Chorin was my inspiration. He was the US Foreign Service Officer who wrote the Department of Commerce’s commercial guide, which helps American companies operate in Libya. He also wrote a chapter in Dirk Vandewalle’s definitive compendium Libya Since 1969: Qadhafi’s Revolution Revisited, which brilliantly puts forth the case for the inevitable impact that American business presence would have on promoting political freedom in Libya. Freedom has since come to Libya and the role of the internet and foreign diplomatic and commercial engagement was quite critical in its arrival, so it is surprising to learn that Chorin has forsaken his earlier convictions.  His new book, Exit Gaddafi: The Hidden History of the Libyan Revolution, lays out his revision.

Chorin presents a detailed, readable, and informed blow-by-blow account of the events of 2011.