Power And Madness In Caesar Gaddafi

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By Hassan Hanizadeh

The similarities between the recent actions of the Libyan dictator with Nero in the Great Fire of Rome suggest that the Libyan dictator is suffering from Caesar madness.

Nero Claudius Caesar, the fifth emperor of ancient Rome, burned down the city of Rome in the year 64 AD out of sheer madness; he finally committed suicide in the year 68 AD.

Currently, the people of Libya are faced with a complicated figure like Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who has brutally bombed public places and killed hundreds of his own countrymen.

The violent oppression of the people suggests Gaddafi is not willing to learn from history as he continues his struggle to maintain his grip on power.

In the recent upheaval in Libya, a large number of aircraft have reportedly fired at crowds of protesters in the city of Benghazi and Tripoli, launching one of the most violent mass killings.

In a televised conference, Colonel Gaddafi called protesters hooligans and said he would fight the people of Libya until the last bullet.

Gaddafi, who is regarded as the strangest leader in the Arab world, was born in the city of Sirte on June 7, 1942.

He entered the army when he was 18. In 1969, he led a bloodless rebellion with junior military officers against the former king Idris al-Senussi when he was only 27-years-old.

Gaddafi came to power at a time when Arab nations were in a difficult psychological state following their defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

By using new rhetoric about fighting Zionism and imperialism in the post-war political climate, Gaddafi managed to attract the attention of most Arab nations.

In the past 42 years Gaddafi has used various political techniques but over the past seven years, in a 180 degree turn, he embraced the United States and the West.

Since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq Gaddafi has submitted to the United States and the West as he worries that the time for his own collapse has come as well.

In 2003, Gaddafi signed an agreement with the United States handing over control of nuclear installations and advanced weaponry to the United States.

The Libyan dictator also paid USD 1 billion as compensation for the 1988 explosion of the Pan American flight over Lockerbie Scotland.

Since then, Gaddafi’s regime has become a favorite of the US and the West’s because he provided information about Islamic and Arabic resistance movements to the CIA.

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, who has long been seen as the successor to his father, has established deep ties with Israeli leaders and the Zionist Lobby of the United States.

Thereby, Libya abandoned the anti-US and anti-Israel bloc to join the American and Western allies. This unimportant change, however, failed to gain the approval of the Libyan population.

This is because the people of Libya question the logic behind Gaddafi’s decision to hand over control of expensive weaponry worth upward of USD 20 billion to the United States without referring to public opinion.

By complying with the West, Gaddafi intended to prepare grounds for the transfer of power to his son Seif al-Islam.

At the time, the US and European nations had agreed to the gradual transfer of power from Gaddafi to his son Seif al-Islam.

Despite the agreements, Colonel Gaddafi witnessed increased domestic turmoil and he was faced with the waves of political dissatisfaction within his own office.

The waves of the tsunami of Egypt and Tunisia quickly reached the shores of Libya creating a difficult situation for the Libyan dictator.

Millions of Libyans protested the domestic and foreign policies of Colonel Gaddafi and confronted government forces.

The wave of unrest reached various cities across Libya and thousands of people have been killed by the direct bullets of African mercenaries.

Gaddafi has hired 50,000 mercenaries from all over Africa and has placed them in major Libyan cities.

Some say Seif al-Islam has contacted Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak requesting a squadron of fighter jets to bomb the people of Libya.

Eyewitnesses in various cities have reported that several F-16 fighter jets have bombed crowds of people protesting against Colonel Gaddafi.

The United States and countries that support Gaddafi have been quiet about the massacre of Libyans at the hand of mercenaries in a bid to advance their own interests.

Western analysts believe the reason why the US gave Gaddafi a free rein to commit the massacres was to create mayhem in the nation.

The US and NATO member-states will then occupy Libya and control its oilfields using the protection of Libyan people.as an excuse.

The current situation is too complicated to be able to make an accurate assessment of the outcome of the protests.

But still it seems Gaddafi’s situation is not better than that of Ben Ali and Mubarak’s, the former Tunisian and Egyptian dictators.

Many of Libya’s political figures compare Gaddafi’s recent oppressive measures to a headless chicken that will soon inhale its last breath.


The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of Press TV.

Press TV

Press TV is a state funded news network owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran and seeks to counter a western view on news.

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