In any case, I wish I could share your optimism in human nature and convince myself that Gaddafi is the biggest monster the world has, and will ever, see. I hope you are right.

Saying that nothing is ‘likely’ to be worse is much more accurate. Granted, it doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, but that shouldn’t be an issue.

[Daphne – No, Charles, nothing could be worse. Gaddafi ticks all the boxes. You think that somebody or something could be worse because you don’t yet know the full story (I don’t either, but I have plenty of information) and perhaps you are not picking up on the random personal anecdotes that are emerging now. I asked you to describe activities that could be worse than what Gaddafi has done, so please do so. Weapons of mass destruction? Sponsoring and organising international terrorism? Mass disappearances and state-sponsored murder of his own people over 42 years? People being whisked out of their own homes and never being seen again because they are suspected of having criticised him? Torture and public hangings of opponents? A total ban on opposition? Leaving the country mired in poverty while he and his sons and daughter sequester billions? Turning the economy into a personal playground for his family and a few favoured henchmen? Threatening the west with terrorism and seizure of assets and an oil crisis if he is not accommodated? Importing mercenaries to shoot at his opponents? And – where we are concerned – using threats, fear, intimidation and money to shape our foreign policy against our interests and in line with his? Come on, list some things that could be worse.]

Why not?

[Daphne – Because the situation does not lend itself to another Hitler, and especially not in Africa, where there are few Jews. The world organised itself differently post-World War II, hence the European Union.]

No matter how terrible Gaddafi’s record is, that’s a clearly incorrect statement. To suggest that Gaddafi is the very peak of human malevolence, beyond which no human has ever or will ever go, is naive. History already furnishes us with examples of a few scoundrels who could be described as ‘worse’. Perhaps I am misinterpreting you?

[Daphne – Name one. And please don’t tell me Adolf Hitler.]

A Liberal.

“We all know what we’d prefer of course.”

I do. And it isn’t Gaddafi.

Totally agree. Is there anywhere in these islands a street named after Gaddafi?

Nope, I think it should be left so as a symbol of our shame, from those days when our elected representatives wanted us to be brothers to the Tyrant of Tripoli. Lest we forget.

Not a ‘good’ stability. Don’t misunderstand me. There was constancy for 40 years, horrible as it was.

This constancy was enough to lure investors to pour money into this country. I’m thinking of Maltese companies that developed ‘villages’ for high end buyers right outside of Tripoli. I wonder what that investment’s value is now or what it will be in the near future.

Compare all this with the political stability in Italy. We all know what we’d prefer of course.

The redeeming factor of most regimes is that they provided stability – even more than any democratic system. The price is of course always too high in terms of human suffering and the individual freedoms that we see as sacred.

[Daphne – Dictatorships do NOT provide more stability than democracy, and you are seeing a spectacular illustration of that right now. Dictatorships are inherently vulnerable to total collapse.]