For the 43 years of Muammar Gaddafi's reign the Arab world, Africa, the developing world, the Western democracies and others all held out their hands to the Libyan dictator - in brotherhood and friendship, even in admiration, and of course in greed.
Nobody's hands are clean and no government consistently stood by its principles. The stain left by many years of Gaddafi's rule has infected the entire world. In 1986 Gaddafi was "the mad dog of the Middle East," according to then US President Ronald Regan. In the 1990s comprehensive international sanctions were imposed against him. But in 2003 he was granted forgiveness, and absolution and by 2004 he was being incessantly hugged, and visited by heads of state and hosted in state ceremonies in western capitals.
The trumpeting of victory and self satisfaction has now brought to a fitting culmination these past 40 years. Crowns have been put on the head of the US and the media has equated the ugly lynching in the Libyan city of Sirte to the elimination of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. It has barely been reported that only recently two of Gaddafi's sons and heirs visited Washington and New York, where they were given handshakes by very senior officials. It was only in 2008 that former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Gaddafi's tent in Libya.
Yes of course, Gaddafi fulfilled the US demand and discarded the weapons of mass destruction that he was trying to develop. He paid heavily in compensation to the families of those killed when a Pan-Am passenger jet exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988 due to the actions of Libyan agents. Gaddafi's actions may have led to the removal of sanctions but certainly did not justify his exoneration. Taking him off the blacklist did not require that he be put on the white list.
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair paved the way for Gaddafi's rehabilitation when he visited his tent in Tripoli in 2004. Others did not stop arriving and Gaddafi formed a special friendship with Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who allowed the Libyan dictator to pitch his tent in Rome, and declare the end of the feud between Gaddafi and Christian Europe. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also cultivated close ties with Gaddafi. Now the UK, France, Italy and Turkey see themselves as pallbearers at Gaddafi's funeral.
It is interesting that Gaddafi himself foresaw his ending. At an Arab League summit in Damascus in 2008 he complained to his counterparts that they had not spoken out when Saddam Hussein had been toppled by a foreign government, put on trial and hanged. "Your turn will come," he said. Somebody in the hall laughed. "Really," he said. Bashar Al-Assad was seen laughing out loud.
Gaddafi continued and then warned that even an insurance policy of US friendship would not save any of those present. Once the Americans were friends with Saddam Hussein. "Even you, the friends of America," he stopped and corrected himself, "We the friends of America will not be saved. One day America will approve hanging us too."
The most important message from the events in Libya is exactly this - that a US insurance policy does not defend tyrants from its own people. This is not such a bad message because nothing should be allowed to defend dictators from their own people. In fact future generations of tyrants will not find it difficult to find alternatives to the US.
In the end western democratic sinners absolved themselves when their aircraft took control of Libyan skies to save the rebels from defeat and enabled them to triumph. Nobody will absolve Africa's leaders. Its leaders tried to save Gaddafi virtually until the end.
In their eyes, he was a "brother leader," even though his hands were drenched in African blood, perhaps more than any other leader of his generation. In 1979, he sent his army to Uganda to save Idi Amin. He invaded Chad and helped put down rebellions and civil wars in West Africa.
Even the most revered of African leaders, former South African President Nelson Mandela defended him. When Mandela visited Washington shortly after being released from prison in 1990, he praised his "brother leader" on a visit to the White House on camera in front of then President George Bush. Solidarity with a fellow leader was more important than solidarity with an oppressed people.
Few will mourn Gaddafi the man but among the mourners will be three Latin American socialist leaders in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia. In their hatred against the US, they found a source of inspiration in Gaddafi.
Another mourner is the most despised tyrant in Africa, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabi. He recently expelled the Libyan embassy staff because the diplomats exchanged Gaddafi's green flag for the tricolor of the rebels.
We can only hope, that as Gaddafi prophesied in Damascus in 2008, the turn will come for all the region's tyrants. They will at least lose sleep over the thought.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 23, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011