Feb. 17 marked the fourth anniversary of the Libyan revolution and the events that led to the civil war and to the NATO intervention that toppled Moammar Gadhafi’s regime.

Four years on and the simple question arises of whether Libya and Libyans indeed achieved anything that is considered positive or worth continuously paying the price for.

Thousands of Libyans are still displaced inside Libya, where they live on charity handouts and in makeshift camps scattered around the oil-rich country. Tawergha, a coastal town east of Misrata, is indicative of what is going on. Its entire population of some 40,000 still cannot go home. In the final days of the 2011 war, militias destroyed almost the entire town’s homes and businesses. Thousands of other families in the south, east and in Tripoli itself still live away from their homes. Since last summer, Benghazi, where everything started four years ago, is virtually a ghost city.

Thousands of more Libyans, myself included, fled to Tunisia, Egypt, the Gulf states and many European countries in search of security and peace, or simply because they could not stay in Libya for fear of arbitrary arrest or death.