Cries of freedom have rung out across the Middle East and Africa as Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and various tyrannical governments have been thrown into turmoil in mere months.
The African country Libya has joined the queue that seeks reform, only to be snidely denied. Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi has no intention of complying with the revolutionary forces. If his public appearances don’t account for aim, the carnage that he has allowed does. According to Voice of America News Online (Voice News), the U.N. secretary-general had the death toll at 1,000 people, but the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights estimated that the actual number was 3,000 to 6,000.
Even among the catcalling of various world leaders, Gaddafi has no plans of stepping down. Secretary-General of the Libyan League for Human Rights, Sliman Bouchuiguir, mentioned to Voice News that the Libyan leader is violent. Gaddafi is ruthless in his tactics, using ferocity as often as his right hand. Bouchuiguir believes that Gaddafi will use anything within his power to destroy the revolution.
While the general promises that Libya has intensity ahead of them, in a video interview with BBC News, Gaddafi claimed “he was loved by all his people and denied there had been protests against him on the streets.”
He went on to blame Westerners for the friction that, at the same time, was and wasn’t happening. Confused? You’re not alone.
Gaddafi has no official title in Libya, and yet, he makes a majority of large-scale decisions.
According to The Guardian, Gaddafi ordered the 1988 Lockerbie bombing which resulted in 270 deaths, 178 of them American. Mustafa Abdel-Jalil told Expressen, a Swedish news source, that he had proof Gaddafi had enlisted the accused bomber to take Pan Am Flight 103 down. Although the evidence has not been disclosed, the idea is very believable.
Slowly, but surely, the delusional Gaddafi has become isolated, and is seemingly a one-man movement against the rebels.
While Republicans have urged the U.S. to lighten the rebel’s load by “providing arms, intelligence and training to opposition forces,” according to an article by the Wall Street Journal, the tactics that the natives have used thus far may suffice.
In this short time, not only have Gaddafi’s closest advisers turned up their noses, but the leader has also become an international outcast. Corner Gaddafi, pit him by himself and he will no longer have a cause to rally for but his own. It may not be a storybook ending, but America won’t put another fist in someone else’s fight, and the aberration we call Gaddafi will slowly fall from his spot on top.
Reach Brittany at bemorri1@asu.edu
