Libya

At the beginning of 2011 Libya was still one of the nicest countries in Africa, and pretty good by any standard- Muammar Gaddafi was using the oil money his country made to provide free public education from pre-school through Phd, there was free universal health care, the streets were safe at night- a good country. Also  Gaddafi and Nelson Mandela had been best pals and strongest advocates of the Pan Africa movement. Libya was no threat to any other country. So why the U.S. empire and Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton and France and Britain thought it was just the place for bombing, no one will ever know. But they did bomb it into the store age, turned this once beautiful country into a dump, and murdered Gaddafi. This left a vacuum of sorts, and prime territory for al Qaeeda,.then Islamic State and an assortment of cutthroats, thieves, pimps, and then, in 2017, slave traders. Libya was still  after all on the Mediterranean and still in Africa, so it became a passage out for the millions of refugees fleeing big and little wars all over. Refugees never have much money and are easy prey for whoever wishes to exploit them for whatever reason, and the country was so wild and so lawless setting up a slave market was easy. Last week slaves were sold in Libya for as little as $400. And the U.S. empire looked on with pride at what wonders this regime change had wrought.