@ Sean - The Fair Use Doctrine has been tested in court and is not "hypothetical" at all.

Once again, I stand lay curled in a fetal position, corrected.

Sean R said:

Libya is small potatoes compared to Saudi Arabia. Wait till they see these kinds of protests/revolts. 20% of the world's oil reserves! Just imagine what that will do to gas prices.

The US severed all diplomatic relations with Libya in
1980, branding Col Gaddafi's government a sponsor of terrorism. Months
earlier, the US embassy in Tripoli was ransacked by people demonstrating
in support of the Iranian revolution.

The move capped a decade of steady deterioration in US-Libyan relations.

Since seizing power in 1970, Col Gadaffi had pursued Arab
nationalist policies. Resources were brought under state control and
alliances forged with nearby Arab nations.

Col Gaddafi also expelled US oil firms that had invested in the country and banned US military vessels from Libyan waters.

In 1981, two Libyan fighter aircraft were shot down by
the US over the Gulf of Sirte. Libya said US jets had violated its
airspace.

In 1986, the US tightened its economic sanctions against
Tripoli, freezing Libyan assets in US banks. A naval clash with US
forces in the Gulf of Sirte left 58 Libyans dead, according to Tripoli.

On 15 April 1986, US President Ronald Reagan ordered his
aircraft to bomb Tripoli, the town of Benghazi and bases used by the
Libyan military.

At least 100 people died in the attacks, many of them civilians - including Col Gaddafi's adopted daughter.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4774355.stm

I still can't find what was the basic scenario of gulf of sidra clash in 80's

----------------

Gulf of Sidra

In 1973, Libya claimed the Gulf of Sidra to be within Libyan
territorial waters by drawing a straight line between a point near
Benghazi and the western headland of the gulf at Misratah This claim
was not generally accepted, although only the United States presented a
direct challenge by declaring that its ships would continue to regard
all areas beyond a distance of 12 nautical miles from the coast as
international waters. In response the President authorized Naval
exercises in the Gulf of Sidra to conduct Freedom of Navigation (FON)
operations. On several occasions, Libyan fighter planes harassed United
States planes from carriers maneuvering in the area.

When the United States Sixth Fleet began exercises in August
1981, Libyan fighter planes were assembled from elsewhere in the country
to fly patrols near the American ships. On August 19, two Su-22
fighter-bombers were intercepted by two F-14 Tomcat fighters from the
aircraft carrier Nimitz. While trying to escort the Libyans out of the
exercise area, one of the American planes was the target of an
air-to-air Atoll missile but was able to evade it. Both Libyan planes
were then shot down with Sidewinder missiles launched by the Tomcats.
The two Libyan pilots managed to eject and were rescued from the sea.
The ease with which the American planes disposed of their attackers
demonstrated that the earlier generation Su-22 and its Atoll missile
could not prevail against more sophisticated United States equipment.