Of all the villains in the world, Mu’ammer Gaddafi is the one I’ve liked best. That’s because he always follows through.
- He’s not only talked about a pan-Arab or pan-African union; he’s tried to create one — first by attempting to persuade his neighbors, then by trying to annex two of them.
- Gaddafi designed the Libyan flag himself: a solid green rectangle. You can’t beat that for simplicity!
- Instead of talking a lot, like Fidel Castro, he wrote a book and let it speak for itself. It handily doubles as the country’s constitution. I’ve got a copy of my own.
- Gaddafi correctly identified the biggest hindrance to individual prosperity — namely, rent — and consequently told Libyans, “The place where you live is your house. You own it.” Predatory landlords were gone overnight!
When the United States bombed his house in 1986 — the 25th anniversary is tomorrow — Gaddafi left the bombed-out structure unrepaired as a monument to his defiance. In his front yard, he even put up a neat statue of a fist crushing an American warplane in its grip.- Lastly, he’s always looked the part. Everything from the wild hair to the sunglasses to the funky wardrobe says, “I am a northern African dictator!”
The only thing inconsistent about him was the spelling of his name. You could spell it almost any way you wanted: Gaddafi, Gadhafi, Ghadafi, Gadafi, Qaddafi, Khadafi, Khaddafy, with or without the el- or al-. It was surprising to see how suddenly everyone could agree on a single spelling — Gaddafi — the moment we all went to war with him.
He’s still there
So in a way, I’ll be sorry to see him go — that is, if he goes. I hate to say it, but I told you so: We should not have gone in. Even though the Libyan rebels did ask the West for help — the day after I wrote that column — and even though they were getting crushed, a consensus is building within NATO that their war can only be fought to a stalemate. A partitioned Libya leaves Gaddafi in power. And as I said, when cornered, he’s dangerous.
The whole history of Gaddafi and the West is one of tit-for-tat:
1. In the 1970s, Gaddafi claimed an extension of Libya’s territorial waters.
2. So in 1981, Ronald Reagan sent over ships and fighter planes to chase him out.
3. So Libya sent up its planes, which fired warning shots at the Americans.
4. So the Americans shot down two Libyan fighter planes.
5. So in 1986, Gaddafi had a terrorist bomb a disco in West Berlin that was frequented by American soldiers.
6. So Reagan dropped a bomb on Gaddafi’s house, killing his adopted daughter.
The Libyan flag
You can see where this is going. But at the time, the accepted reasoning was: OK, Gaddafi himself was not the target; the house was empty except for the daughter, who was not known to be there; and the whole thing shocked Gaddafi and made him shut up.
History repeats itself
Instead, what happened was:
7. In 1988, he had a terrorist blow up Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York as it was passing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Two hundred seventy people died. Houses were destroyed. Pan Am went bankrupt.
8. In 1989, the US shot down another Libyan aircraft.
9. Later that year, Gaddafi got his brother-in-law to blow up another passenger plane, UTA Flight 772 over Chad.
10. Under UN sanctions from 1993 to 2003, Gaddafi withered a bit and was finally willing to pay millions of dollars in compensation for the terrorist acts in exchange for millions of dollars in Western oil contracts.
I think the deal is off. Steps 1 through 9 are where we may be headed, folks. Don’t mind Gaddafi’s incoherence; page 34 of his Green Book allows for that:
“An individual has the right to express himself or herself even if he or she behaves irrationally to demonstrate his or her insanity.”
Lately, though, Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, has appointed himself his father’s spokesman. He pronounces his name “safe”, as though we’re all safe with him. And thanks to an e-mail he sent me last night, we might be able to work something out.
Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy didn’t listen to me, so Saif, I’m all ears. Just make sure that those millions of dollars you’re offering get to my bank account.
