Of course they were going to kill him
Back from two and a half hours of watching news and discussions about the death of Muammar Gaddafi. The news anchors were going on about disturbing footage and gruesome images, but in the circumstances I was actually surprised those men managed to restrain themselves and not do worse. They bumped him off pretty quickly, considering, which was civilised of them.
The people who say he should have received due process are unrealistic. And when they say that due process would have been cathartic in a way that executing him summarily is not, perhaps they are a little cut off from the psychology of those who have suffered enormously over a prolonged period.
They just can’t take any more. The only way they can move on, start putting that behind them if they can, is when they know the tyrant is dead.
One of the (Libyan) interviewees on Bondi+ tonight really put it well: as long as Gaddafi remained alive, the pain of his victims would remain alive with him.
They would have suffered seeing him walk around alive, even if in a cage or a prison, and a protracted trial with its days and months and years of evidence would only make things worse.
The NTC, in an attempt at covering up what seem to be pretty obvious facts in that mobile phone footage, has said that he was caught in the crossfire and killed by a stray bullet to the head as he was being taken to hospital to be treated, after being pulled out of a storm drain where he was hiding.
I wouldn’t bother if I were them. Most people watching that video understand exactly how those men felt and probably feel much the same way. The only people saying ‘Oh my god, they killed him without trial’ are Amnesty International and a brother of one of the Pan Am bombing victims, and each for very different reasons.
But in that phone-footage which we saw so many times this evening, he’s dragged off the back of a pick-up truck looking like he’d been beaten about the head and mouth, covered in blood, dazed and confused, then he’s pushed around and knocked about some more, then in the next frame he’s dead on the ground.
Oh, and the Labour Party might be pleased to know that the famous LIFE picture of Gaddafi at one of its mass meetings in Malta, sandwiched between Lorry Sant and one of his women guards, made it to CNN tonight.
As Silvo said, sic transit gloria mundi.
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Any bets on KMB quoting this site during his comedy hour on Smash?
http://libyanfreepress.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/gaddafi-is-not-dead/
I’m glad, as everybody else, that the monster is dead, and what pleased me even more is that he was caught while hiding in a sewer just like the rat he was.
On the other hand I would have preferred if he had been put on trial. I am sure we would have heard some very interesting things,like for example the names of some of his. exfriends,who now proclaim themselves as his enemies, the names of some European leaders who recieved money for their campaigns, like Sarkosy and more.
I believe it was in nobody’s interest for him to be kept alive, and the report that he was killed in a crossfire is just a coverup for what really happened.
As Hillary said, wow.
And as Thatcher said, just rejoice.
Mob justice is not justice. Just because in the mind of the uneducated or ignorant (of the facts) a person is guilty, does not make it so. This is akin to pointing at someone, screaming “WITCH!” and demanding they be subjected to trial by ordeal.
You are not only excusing, but praising summary execution. No sound or fair minded person could possibly support such a position. This sort of treatment (along with torture and detention without trial) is that which has traditionally been used by the worst tyrants and those whom the West claims to be different to.
On a final point, the original investigation into the Lockerbie bombing was looking towards Iran and the PFLP-GC. The evidence presented is flawed and totally unreliable. Take a look at the Iran Air 655 incident for a real motive.
[Daphne – Get a grip.]
Oh come on! Get a grip (as Daphne said). I am surprised (as Daphne said) that he was still recognisable.
Frankly, I was expecting much worse after all the pain he had put his people through.
Sometimes, it is natural law which governs and, certainly, natural law does not dictate a more fitting end to the man who brought so many families to their knees and graves.
The bastard is dead. He lived by the bullet and died by it.
Justice has been served.
When one kills another over some sort of dispute, it can be described as ‘revenge’
When 50,000+ dead or disappeared cannot find justice, someone still around does it on their behalf.
Is that justice or revenge?
This murderer had a choice which he did not make and fell victim of what was inevitably coming to him either way. I cannot imagine that he had a credible excuse that would have exonerated him had he been brought to justice at the Hague.
The redeeming factor is that he met his end by the hands of his own people and not by a court made up of ‘biased’ foreign judges.
Lorry Sant with Gaddafi on CNN? Sabrina Agius must be pleased. Did she report Malta’s bad publicity on RTK news?