Libya's oil minister, Abdel-Bari al-Arusi, announced that his country had lost $1.6 billion in oil revenues since 25 July because of the closure of key oil powers as a result of strikes. He warned that if the situation continues in this way, Libya will be drowned in darkness, and conditions will deteriorate. When this North African country rid itself of more than four decades of rule by a dictator who destroyed all vestiges of the Libyan state, there was a prevailing sense of relief. Muammar Gaddafi left Libya without institutions or an army. His regime was based on his autocratic rule, along with his followers, and he came up with the idea of replacing state institutions with "popular committees" who would applaud the rule of the madman and his silly Green Book. Gaddafi's legacy ended up with Libya after the revolution as a country awash in weapons, everywhere. It ended up in the grip of gangs imposing their order through force of arms, with a government unable to do anything except talk, or resign. Before the uprising, Libya was exporting more than 1.5 million barrels a day, while strikes and the closure of export terminals have seen its oil exports dip to 330,000 barrels a day. All of the oil companies operating in Libya – German, Italian and French – expect more problems in the sector because of strikes, and also because the country lacks security. Post-revolution Libya has not recovered because armed gangs – and not a strong central government, police and army able to disarm these gangs – are in control. Military intervention succeeded in toppling Gaddafi, but the revolution failed in anchoring a political plan for a strong state, beginning with providing security for Libyans through the formation of a regular army of police that can disarm the gangs imposing their rule over the country. There was great hope when Gaddafi was ousted that the Libyan opposition, which was able to topple the regime with western assistance, would work to build a strong army that could take over security, and get rid of the militias and their leaders. However, it failed to do so. There is now a very dangerous level of insecurity. The armed gangs are there, made up of terrorist jihadists and charlatans who claim to speak for Islam, when in fact they are advocates of terror, intimidation and stealing their country's wealth. The oil sector in Libya is the backbone of the economy and if it deteriorates, the country's decline will become even worse. Libyans must be able to benefit from their natural wealth and from a revolution that released this wealth. However, the uprising has failed to see economic recovery and an exit from the darkness of the Gaddafi era. Western countries that helped topple Gaddafi should help the government train a Libyan force that can control these militias and disarm them. The mission is a difficult and complicated one, in a country that lacked institutions and any state system for more than four decades. However, oil revenues should be dedicated during the current phase to establishing an army or true military force that can handle security, or else Libya will become a group of mini-states, controlled by these gangs. Conditions in Syria and Egypt, it should be noted, are not similar. The Syrian uprising is confronting a brutal regime but the country has the kind of state institutions that did not exist under Gaddafi. In Egypt, an army and state institutions played a role in ousting President Mohamed Morsi, at the request of the opposition, which filled the streets of Egypt to demand his departure. Revolutions are all different but in their wake, it takes a long time for stability to prevail, as it did in Europe, provided that the countries do not fall apart, and that the rulers do not try to do what Assad is doing in Syria.
