More 'the end of Gaddafi' videos
Anybody who says ‘how barbaric’ should remember that he could have avoided all this by giving himself up at the appropriate time. And they should also remember not to project their own sentiments onto people whose experience and suffering they have not shared.
At least they had the decency to put him out of his misery immediately by shooting him, and didn’t succumb to what must have been a near-unbearable desire to tear him limb from limb.
Look at all they went through, for heaven’s sake. Well, certainly not for heaven’s sake.
Oppressors of this nature are always killed outright – look at the history of the 20th century and this one – if not by execution then by their own hand.
It is those around them who go on trial.
The reason is catharsis, and the fact that the country cannot start afresh until the main reason for their misery is no longer alive. There is no punishment which suits the crimes of oppressors such as Muammar Gaddafi, and any attempt at finding one – jail for the rest of his life? – makes a mockery of his crimes, which are of incomprehensible magnitude.
And yes, the fact that he was stripped of his wig along with his false dignity is part of it. His vanity was a big part of his personality and his hair was his symbol, which is why he kept wearing it long after it had gone. By default, that big hair became a symbol of the oppressor.
This is a man who CNN showed last night, in footage I had not seen before, posing before a mirror and repeatedly doing up and undoing the top button of his jacket before giving that now notorious ‘zenga zenga bieb bieb dar dar’ speech. His people had risen up against him, there was death and destruction, and one of his main concerns was what he looked like.
No, I wouldn’t have done the same thing and I would have had serious problems being around people crowding round a corpse to gloat and take photographs of it on mobile phones. But I did not share their experience and had I done so, I might have done exactly the same. So would you. We are lucky – lucky indeed – that we have no way of knowing how his victims feel.
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Someone’s else’s comment:
R.I.P to all the Libyans killed over 42 years by the ruthless tyrant Muammar Al Gadaffi.
May their families now find closure, may god give them peace of mind.
May all the rape victims be able to sleep at night, may all the children be able to play and grow up in a democratic country.
May all the maimed, amputees and injured heal mentally and physically from their injuries, knowing that their pain was not in vain.
Viva Libya. Bless the courageous, brave and proud Libyans, you showed the world that nothing is impossible and I’m proud to know such people.
The more you try to justify these acts of barbarism, the more unknowing you prove yourself to be.
[Daphne – oooooooh, nesty.]
Yes, you would say that. What a bliss to be unknowing! It gives you the right to be right all the time.
When you kill your own people, expect your own people to kill you.
Come clean, Kev, and declare your interest. You worship Mintoff. Did you worship Gaddafi too?
I admire Mintoff a lot, but I never admired or worshipped Gaddafi, so do not try to be funny.
Miskin qatlu(lu) lil Superman.
But wouldn’t condemning these acts of barbarism mean that you are justifying the acts of barbarism that caused them, kev?
Eh, no.
You don’t do altruism well, Kevvy.
Kevin, he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.
I don’t know what I might have done to him if he had tortured or killed one of my close relatives, like the two pilots who were returned to him from Algeria and who were tortured and had a pressure pipe stuck in their bottoms and …opened.
Wouldn’t a shot in the head have been enough?
Yes for us westerners they are barbaric acts, but the Kordin Imam told us today that Gaddafi deserved to die that death.
Who would dare try to be the dictator of Libya now?
From your comments and some other people’s comments one can easily figure out how things would have been in Malta in this situation had there been a Labour government:
Dr Alfred Sant as prime minister;
a NO vote on the UN 1976 Security Council resolution with all its implications;
and a Xandir Malta style media bombardment on how Malta supports Gaddafi’s cause;
a NO vote on the bailout of Greece and other countries.
Kev, I don’t know why you liked Gaddafi. According to Alfred Sant he financed the pro-EU campaign.
“Anybody who says ‘how barbaric’ should remember that he could have avoided all this by giving himself up at the appropriate time”.
Precisely. He would have gotten UN protection. But no, the rat wanted to defy the Libyan people until the end.
The scum made a fitting exit out of this world, and only scum like him are saddened by the occasion.
I think this was a pretty disgusting way to kill him, regardless of the cathartic potential or whatever else. Some things are objectively nasty.
Though when he’s inevitably replaced by some kind of militant Ialamic theocracy, it’s gonna be hilarious. Bring back the knights.. if nothing else, Festing can bore the Saracen hordes to death with one of his speeches.
Gaddafi was detested by 9 out of 10 Libyans.
I have been in contact, professionally, with hundreds of Libyans over the years and I stand by the above figures.
Since March this year the figure closed on to 10 out of 10.
My informant from Misrata came last week on a UN flight.
When I asked him where he thought the Rais was he replied:
“I will not tell you where the devil is. I will just say that we, the Misrata brigade, will find him AND kill him very soon.
We have lost too many dear ones in Misrata. We have to kill him”
The Libyan people are anything but barbaric.
Their hurt and suffering have been unimaginable.
It is very obvious from the videos, shot from various angles, circulating on the internet, that the guy was, in fact, lynched.
This was no excecution, this was mob rule.
It was, also, something the NTC wanted to avoid, but could not because it’s control over the fighters is very weak.
What the Western media should now do is to enquire what is happening to people who were known supporters of Gaddafi, I mean, normal citizens who genuinely believed in his politics, whatever they were.
Surely these people exist.
Then there is the question most of the media is still afraid to ask: what is happening to the black immigrants who are being accused “en masse” of being mercenaries. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/30/libya-spectacular-revolution-disgraced-racism
I think the NTC has been given too much “carte blanche” by the Western media. It now needs to be grilled, like any other government.
He could have avoided all this because he had plenty of time to pack his bags and spend the rest of his days enjoying the millions he accumulated somewhere like Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez is mourning him deeply. I respect him for the way he chose to go out.
We should also see videos of all those who died because of this selfish greedy brutal megalomaniac rat.
Gaddafi was very lucky to have been killed straight away, unlike most of his prisoners who spent years in his jails before they were summarily executed.
May I add that the average Libyan is very hospitable and friendly. They are the nicest of all the Arabs I met. I would gladly live amongst them.
@kev “The more you try to justify these acts of barbarism, the more unknowing you prove yourself to be”
Unknowing? So perhaps you can share what YOU know?
Acts of barbarism? Well, what do you know? Here is something I would like to share with you
http://sijill.tripod.com/victims/
Of course, this had been predicted years ago, from 02:20:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o62MU1q-U1k&feature=player_embedded
I’m reading and trying to understand where i stand. I was always told and truly believe that two wrongs never make one right.
I also believe that whatever a criminal has done, it is never right to do the same to that person. Of course you will instinctively want revenge and want to kill that person but we are not animals and our morals and values tell us that whilst justice needs to be done one cannot take justice into our own hands as otherwise we will have anarchy.
The recent stupid comments that were made about the person who killed that dog in a skip show how people can easily loose it. They go from one extreme – puppy loving people – to another – torturers and murderers.
It was quite obvious that Ghaddafi was not going down without a fight and I think it was he who said that he will fight till the end. From his final words I would assume he did not imagine it would come to this and that he believed he would win.
In general I think that the Libyans are better off this way, it will take less time to move forward, however they have missed the opportunity to show the world that they are now a different nation, obviously a nation is not changed overnight but it could have been a brilliant start.
Having said all this I don’t think this is a time for jubilation but a sorrowful time, a time to remember how many lives have been lost. Yes the Libyans are allowed jubilation at the end of the war, they are also allowed to enjoy being rid of Ghaddafi, but i think that we on the other hand should not be happy at the way he was killed or the gawking that ensued.
We should not judge the Libyans as barbaric I agree you need to be there to understand.
But then we should not go to the other extreme and say this is right otherwise there will be mayhem now in Libya. What if the fighters now start turning on other people with the excuse that they were supporting the dictator. Then anyone can be lynched… We would then have the same problem we had with Ghaddafi in the first place.
The man is dead now.
Common decency requires now that his corpse be given a decent burial and not used as a trophy of war.