Goodbye Colonel

"The Libyan people should not relinquish the sacrifices of the free and best people. I call on my supporters to continue the resistance, and fight any foreign aggressor against Libya, today, tomorrow and always"
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi

Children play on a tank that belonged to the Gadhafi regime in Misrata, Libya

Children play on a tank that belonged to the Gadhafi regime in Misrata, Libya

This declaration marked the formation of a new government within a month, starting from yesterday. That process continued with the constituent assembly elections within eight months. After that there will be parliamentary elections and presidential elections.

Libya Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril declared his resignation last week, will take effect after the declaration of independence has been completed echoed.

As for Omar Hariri, one of the officers who participated in the coup along with Gaddafi in 1969 but later he was imprisoned, has been appointed to lead the military forces. Previously, he was appointed as the senior military commander in the provisional government of the national transition council (NTC).
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You can't blame Gaddafi for thinking he was one of the good guys
The West may be celebrating his death, but that's just an accident of timing
Friday, 21 October 2011
By : Robert Fisk

We loved him. We hated him. Then we loved him again. Blair slobbered over him. Then we hated him again. Then La Clinton slobbered over her BlackBerry and we really hated him even more again. Let us all pray that he wasn't murdered. "Died of wounds suffered during capture." What did that mean?

He was a crazy combination of Don Corleone and Donald Duck – Tom Friedman's only moment of truth about Saddam Hussein – and we who had to watch his ridiculous march-pasts and his speeches bit our lips and wrote about Libyan tanks and marines and missiles that were supposed to take this nonsense seriously. His frogmen flipped and flapped through Green Square in the heat and we had to take this rubbish at face value and pretend that it was a real threat to Israel; just as Blair tried to persuade us (not unsuccessfully) that Gaddafi's pathetic attempts to create "weapons of mass destruction" had been skewered. This, in a country that couldn't repair a public lavatory.

So he is gone, the colonel who was once beloved of the Foreign Office (after the coup against King Idris), then guarded as a "safe pair of hands", then loathed because he sent weapons to the IRA, then loved, etc, etc. Can you blame the man for thinking he was a good guy?

And did he perish so? Shot down while trying to resist? We lived with Ceausescu's death (and that of his wife), so why not Gaddafi's? And Gaddafi's wife is safe. Why shouldn't the dictator die thus? Interesting question. Did our friends in the National Transitional Council decree his demise? Or was this "natural", a death at the hands of his enemies, an honourable end to a bad man? I wonder. How the West must have been relieved that there would be no trials, no endless speeches from the Great Leader, no defence of his regime. No trials mean no accounts of rendition and torture and no cutting of sexual parts.

So let us not recall any grovelling to Gaddafi. More than 30 year ago, I went to Tripoli, and met the IRA man who sent the Semtex to Ireland and protected the Irish citizens in Libya, and the Libyans were quite happy that I should meet them. And why not? For this was a period in which Gaddafi was the leader of the Third World. We got used to the ways of his regime. We got used to his cruelty. We connived at it, once it became "normal". Thus it was important to finish the documentation of his viciousness on our behalf.

Indeed, the end of any juridical evidence of torture by Gaddafi's regime care of (of course) and on behalf of the UK government would be a good thing, wouldn't it? The UK woman who knew all about this torture – unnamed but I know her name, so make sure she does not misbehave again – will she be safe from prosecution (which she should not be)? And will we all make cosy with Muammar Gaddafi's mates in the aftermath of his demise?

Maybe. But let us not forget the past. Gaddafi remembered the Italian colonial rule in Libya, the repulsive Italian rule during which every Libyan had to walk in the gutter when confronted by an Italian, when Libya's heroes were hanged in public, when Libyan freedom was regarded as "terrorism". The oil men and the lads and lassies from the IMF are going to be treated no better with the same servitude. The Libyans are smart people. Gaddafi knew that; although, fatally, he thought himself smarter. The idea that these tribal people will suddenly "globalise" and become different is ridiculous.

Gaddafi was one of those Arab potentates for whom the moniker "crazy" was fitting, yet who spoke a kind of sanity. He did not believe in "Palestine" because he thought the Israelis had already stolen too much Arab land (correct) and he did not really believe in the Arab world – hence his tribal beliefs. He was, indeed, a very odd person.

We shall wait to find out how Gaddafi died. Was he murdered? Was he "resisting" (a good tribal thing to do)? Don't worry – La Clinton will be happy he was "killed".
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( Source :: Independent )

Hillary Clinton's excitement seemed too cheap when compared with the price of Gaddafi's death. This honorable lady makes ​​me laugh at her laugh.

"This is my will. I, Muammar bin Mohammad bin Abdussalam bi Humayd bin Abu Manyar bin Humayd bin Nayil al Fuhsi Gaddafi, do swear that there is no other God but Allah and that Mohammad is God's Prophet, peace be upon him. I pledge that I will die as Muslim.

Should I be killed, I would like to be buried, according to Muslim rituals, in the clothes I was wearing at the time of my death and my body unwashed, in the cemetery of Sirte, next to my family and relatives.

I would like that my family, especially women and children, be treated well after my death. The Libyan people should protect its identity, achievements, history and the honourable image of its ancestors and heroes. The Libyan people should not relinquish the sacrifices of the free and best people.

I call on my supporters to continue the resistance, and fight any foreign aggressor against Libya, today, tomorrow and always.

Let the free people of the world know that we could have bargained over and sold out our cause in return for a personal secure and stable life. We received many offers to this effect but we chose to be at the vanguard of the confrontation as a badge of duty and honour.

Even if we do not win immediately, we will give a lesson to future generations that choosing to protect the nation is an honour and selling it out is the greatest betrayal that history will remember forever despite the attempts of the others to tell you otherwise."
(Gaddafi's Last Will)
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Until Sunday (10/23/2011) night, Gaddafi's body was not buried. His body, together with his son's body (Mutassim), and his former defense minister, Abu Bakr Younis, were still on display in Misrata. So far, the transition government in Tripoli has not decided what would be done on all three bodies. Governments in several cities refused if their territory was used as a place to Gaddafy's grave.
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Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi has finally died after for eight months his country was ravaged by conflict (civil war). The end of Gaddafi regime, Thursday (10/20), can't be separated from the support of NATO and the U.S. that proactively launched an offensive attack after attack, in an effort to assist the revolutionary forces of anti-Gaddafi.

It's not hard to guess why the coalition of Western (U.S., UK, France, Italy, and Canada) fully supported the UN Security Council resolutions to the no-fly zone in Libya. That didn't just oversee the no-fly zone only, but they made effective the air strikes to targets which became the basis of Gaddafi military forces. So, it was not surprising if the Libyan military has been in ruins. Civilians became the victims.

The defeat signs of Gaddafi's forces was seen when NATO and U.S. troops intervened to bombard the airport and the center of Libya's military defense. NATO forces were quite clever by not deploying their troops, but tended to support the rebels by providing weapons to fight the ground war. As a result, there were many victims of the Libyan people (approximately 25,000 people). And that's what made a civil war in Libya last long enough, because it looked like it was intentional by the West. The rebels had to work hard to conquer a territory and moved again to other areas.

Initially, the government forces and Gaddafi loyalists had the upper hand because they had  more weapons and complete. So, anytime, Gaddafi forces could cripple the rebel forces in a turbulent region. But then the Gaddafi's military actions turned into a backfire. The majority of Libyan people who initially were in favor of the government (Gaddafi) finally supported the rebels with a spread of issues and provocations against Gaddafi as a inhuman cruel leader. Especially after NATO forces intervened to make the rebels were more eager to overthrow Gaddafi.

It was noted, the uprising in Libya began in February 2011 was initiated by the actions of anti-Gaddafi demonstration done by some people of Libya people in Benghazi. A small percentage of people and opposition figures in the region were trying to fight with a demonstration after seeing the attitude of arrogance and lack of clarity about governance model in their country, because everything was centralized at Gaddafi for four decades. But the protests from opposition were answered with repression. All who tried to fight back would be completed with mop-up action.

Gaddafi's authoritarian attitude made ​​the U.S. and countries in Europe angry and felt compelled to beat Libya because of the cruelty and undemocratic leadership of Gaddafi. But in my opinion, the NATO's effort to combat Libya is clear, not solely because of it. There is a larger target to control the oil fields of a small country with a population of 6.4 million inhabitants, but its oil income relatively largest in the world reached 1.5 million barrels per day.

Therefore, it seemed, the world fooled by the tricks and strategies of the West (NATO and the U.S.) as if they were trying to run a humanitarian mission to help the civilians groups who fought Gaddafi's military. No wonder if NATO hummed the mission to establish a democracy climate in Libya, so the international world did not rate it negative.

And it has been proven when NATO forces bombed Libya by air, the world seemed to just stay quiet. NATO's first mission to humanity, to help the civilians and the opposition to get their rights eventually turned out to be a mission to subvert Gaddafi's power, even they determined to arrest and prosecute this controversial leader of the Arab/African which was known to be very vocal and courageous to denounce the American and European leaders who always applied a double standard. So, the reason for humanity and democracy seemed only a mere shield.

The end is fixed on economic issues. NATO and the U.S. want to master the wealth of Libya's oil wells which is very potential to raise the price of crude oil until it can't be controlled by the developed countries.

Especially if the reason of poverty, it makes no sense at all. It can be seen from the life level and the average income of Libyan people. It is quite high, can reach U.S.14.581 billion dollars in a year, although we can't turn a blind eye to the fact that many of them are classified as poor, even if Gaddafi has led for 42 years. It means, the development run by Colonel Gaddafi is uneven, favoritism. The wealthy live in luxurious abundance, while the poor live increasingly miserable.

For the future, a period of head of state to rule is not to be too long. After the death of Gaddafi, we hope the Libyan people could be more democratic and more prosperous because it has tremendous natural wealth (oil). Do not be like the proverbial, "You've been free from the crocodile's mouth, but then trapped into the lion's mouth."
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(CZ-La1024)