Liberal Donald Kaul weighs in on Gadhafi: "Taking comfort in a tyrant's killing"

[Mira]

Column: Donald Kaul takes comfort in a tyrant's killing

By: Donald Kaul
Published: October 26, 2011

Like any good liberal, I thought that Moammar Gadhafi, after being captured by rebel forces, should have been read his Miranda rights and then taken directly to jail to await trial by a jury of his peers. After being indicted, of course.
As a human being, however, I didn't recoil from the images of his terrible death. There's something deeply and almost atavistically satisfying in seeing a murderous tyrant meet the end he deserves.
I recall pictures of his fellow miscreants, Saddam Hussein and Hosni Mubarak, in court looking meek and frail. You almost felt sorry for them.

There was none of that with Gadhafi. In a scene almost too Hollywood to be true, he was dragged from his hiding place in a sewer pipe, spread-eagled on the hood of a truck and pummeled by an angry mob of his victims while begging for mercy. As far as we know, he was then executed without ceremony.
But his final humiliation wasn't yet complete. His corpse was taken from place to place so that the people he'd oppressed for more than 42 years could see, at long last, that their nemesis was truly dead. There were stories of Libyans punching the body as they filed past, even bouncing his head up and down where he lay.
That is Shakespearean in its dramatic irony.


for the rest of it go to
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/oct/26/wsopin02-column-donald-kaul-takes-comfort-in-a-tyr-ar-1538240/

[DCBob]

1. I have the same feelings as Donald about this..

and I am a good liberal too.

[Fumesucker]

2. ...

[MADem]

3. Bill Maher averred that this picture creates a Godfather-like aura around Obama.

He can shake your hand, and see you dead.

He didn't put it quite that way, but that was his general trajectory.

[Fumesucker]

6. Maher is as perceptive in some ways as he is blind in others..

[provis99]

4. and now Libya has an anti-American Islamic fundamentalist as its leader.

Yay for our brilliant foreign policy.:eyes:

[ellisonz]

5. What are you talking about?

[provis99]

9. this:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c76d30ca-fe53-11e0-a1eb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1bwA50fcW

[ellisonz]

11. I registerd for Financial Times to read the article and found nothing anti-American.

Just a capitalist rehash of the coverage on Mustafa Abdul-Jalil's speech already.

Sharia law is not fundamentally anti-American.

[MADem]

8. Really? I watch the news, didn't hear of an election--who got the nod? nt

[Major Hogwash]

10. Do you have a link for that?

I know you don't, but I thought I would ask anyway.

:rofl:

[DCBob]

13. I thought we got rid of Gaddafi because he was anti-American??

I am getting so confused.

[MisterP]

7. liberal hawks are so 2003

[ellisonz]

12. Wish we'd have intervened in Rwanda in 1994.

:-(

[sabrina 1]

14. What did he do that any one of the NATO colonial powers

hasn't done ten fold to innocent people? Have you ever actually read anything about Libya? The ignorant Donald Kaul's view is a typical Western view of an African leader, an old Colonial view. When African leaders buck the Colonial powers they always meet with a bloody, end, lynched, murdered, whatever. The last Libyan leader who met the same fate met it at the hands of the Italians.

The view from Africa is quite different. I mean here we are deligting in a war crime in action, pointing fingers at the 'noble savages' in Africa, while the rest of the world, outside of the Colonial, Imperial Western nations, looks on in horror. Their reaction, even from those who didn't necessarily like him, was at least civilized.

How many have we murdered in our Colonial Wars, and the Europeans? Millions is probably being kind. Torture? Lol! Putting a hit on people who plotted against the Libyan government? In 40 years, probably nine for Gadaffi. For our current president, I think the count of American citizens assassinated by this government is 4 in less than four years.

At least he shared the profits of his countries resources with his people. They are going to miss that, as the Looters are already 'packing their bags' to start profiting from their latest conquest.

There must be someone somewhere who has the moral authority to delight in the murder of an African leader. But it sure isn't any of the Imperial states, which was pointed out over the past few days, frequently, on African blogs. But then they know the history of Colonialism.

Desmond Tutu, someone who HAS the moral authority to judge these bloody wars, next to the grotesque, medieval glee at the gore and mob violence, (while pretending we are civilized) made all of them look like the evil, hypocritical, Imperialists they are.

I am ashamed to be a Democrat right now. We have sunk even lower than the Bush supporters who at least were in favor of a trial, no matter how much of a sham of it was. The bloodthirsty, primitive joy in the murder of a human being, about whom they know little, is one of the lowest moments in this country since I started paying attention to politics.

Now, tell me how much I love dictators.

[DCBob]

16. How do you know the new Libyan government will not share the oil wealth with the people??

Even evil tyrants do that since they know that is how they stay in power.

[sabrina 1]

17. You mean like the new Iraq Government got to do?

Since when did the Western Colonial Powers ever share anything of value with the people they invaded and took it from?

The reason Gadaffi is dead is because he got 'uppity'. Take eg, Karamov in Uzbekistan, he makes Gadaffi look like Santa Clause. One of the most notorious, brutal dictators in the world. He has committed genocide against his own people and his brutality was so bad, that a British dimplomat quit his job rather than deal with him.

But no one is throwing him to a rabid mob. In fact, the current Administration is proud to say that relationships are 'warming' with Uzbekistan and they will be meeting to discuss 'business' next week. The difference is that Karamov is behaving himself. He's not trying to establish independence for his country, he's happy to take our tax dollars, while he tortures and abuses his people and we look the other way.

If it were a choice between these two regarding who is the worst dictator, Karamov would win, hands down.

But we are hypocrites in the West. Gadaffi wanted to build up Africa and make it strong instead of being a slave to the West as it has been in the past. He created organizations to unite African nations, funded education for countries that were poor and was generally viewed as a good, strong advocate for Africa.

He fully supported Nelson Mandela during apartheid, one of the reasons the West hates him. So where did all this hate come from? If Tutu and Mandela view him as a 'brother', whose opinion do I respect more, theirs or the Neocon/neoliberals who run this world?

The 'rebels', they were used, I don't have much hope for them. They will probably be thrown to the dogs if they become too troublesome. THAT's when they will be accused of Gadaffi's death.

The country will not be left to the Libyans that's for sure, and the West will impoverish the Libyans as they have the Iraqis.

Just another imperial war with the usual cover of 'humanitarianism, yet they allowed the murders in Sirte, two or three mass graves have now discovered, even though Human Rights organizations begged them to force a cease fire to get people out safely. Does that sound like the new boss is going to all humanitarian and everything? We KNOW the history of War Crimes NATO has committed together with us, but we are immune.

[DCBob]

18. LIbya is not Iraq.

get real.

[provis99]

25. fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice...

[DCBob]

26. fools to left of me jokers to the right...

i give up. ciao.

[DCBob]

15. Gaddafi's brutal killing may convince "son-on-the-run" Saif to surrender.

(Reuters) - Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who once vowed to die fighting on Libyan soil, now wants to face international justice instead and avoid any chance of meeting the same grisly end as his father, Libyan officials said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/27/us-libya-idUSTRE79F1FK20111027

[bluestate10]

20. Living one's life in a comfortable cell in the Hague, beats getting street justice.

Saif al-Islam isn't as moronic as first guessed.

[DCBob]

21. It also suggests he may be trapped somewhere inside Libya unable to get to any neighboring country..

or there are no neighboring countries willing to take him in. If true this means the Gaddafi era is truely over.

[bluestate10]

19. Gadaffi met the Mussolini end.

Mistreat, deprave and impoverish your people long enough. He got the end that 42 years of corrupt and self serving rule earned him.

[pampango]

22. Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania thought he was loved by the people he ruled, too. n/t

[DCBob]

24. and Marcos of the Philippines... the same.

btw, I know your username is a place in the Philippines. Are from there?

[UTUSN]

23. K&R #1 (NULLIFIED). n/t