On a wing and a prayer

The Arab Spring of 2011 ran into a cold, dark hell in Libya, the once-prosperous nation on the eastern tip of Africa, with its extensive coastline on the Mediterranean Sea that separated it from Europe. Four decades under the strongman Muammar Gaddafi had seen it withdraw into a sort of isolation from the rest of the world, but for 6 million Libyans, there was free education , free medicine, and oil and gas resources to last generations. The regime itself, like any regime that last for decades, had run out of ideas to light the way to a future filled with hope and drive, particularly for the young, many of whom found it difficult to find job…