Colonel Gadhafi was captured alive; we know that because the cell phone video proves he was. The cell phone video also shows he was murdered shortly thereafter. What happened in between is up for discussion. The rebels who captured Gadhafi claimed he was killed in a cross fire with loyalist. Which is highly unlikely, Gadhafi was too valuable to have been killed so carelessly. The truth is someone from the rebel squad killed Gadhafi. Its mob murder 101.
The Libyan Transitional Government wants to put the murderous dictator ways of Gadhafi behind Libya. You know, start a new government focused on power and wealth sharing, freedom of speech, and a society build on the rule of law, not force. These are ideas that a democratic society embraces and passes onto its children. However, apparently, the Transitional Government forgot to pass these ideas onto its militia.
The murder of Gadhafi, and let’s call it what it is, is a signal that the revenge methodology that is so prevalent in the Middle East, is alive and well in Libya, no matter who is in power. If the Libyan Transitional Group had wanted to demonstrate to the world that it wanted to embrace modern governing philosophies, a trial of Gadhafi would have been the first step. Instead, they allowed their Gadhafi hunters to simply execute him on the spot.
And they just proved that revenge over rides the law in Libya.
This is a very scary omen of things to come for Libya. Just look at Afghanistan and Iraq, 10 years of occupational warfare have accomplished very little. When we leave, which will be soon, I suspect those countries will descend into chaos as the American police force returns home and the resident trouble makers are free to run amok. The Middle Eastern way of life is centered on honor and integrity, and when those principles are compromised, they must be restored at all costs. Even if it means revenge.
American has now exported democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. While we have exported the principles of democracy abroad, what we cannot export is safety and security. So, my argument is, what good is democracy when you are afraid to walk the streets? I know there are those who will argue it is a start, democracy takes time, and of course the old adage “What are you a communist?” No, I am not a communist (communism died with Russia), I just no longer believe in the way of violence as an answer to our societal problems.
American democracy got its start in 1776. It took almost 200 years to reach a point where every person in the United States had a share in that idea. And those 200 years were marred with extreme upheaval (think Civil War) and a brutal repression of African Americans in its aftermath. As a student of African-American history in America, and when I say brutal, it was bad. American history books have whitewashed African-American history to the point of being shameful.
So, do Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya have to also endure 200 years of inner country violence to reach a point that America has reached today?
If so, then maybe we need to rethink our American interventionist policies and ideas. Maybe, the forceful removal of dictators is not the best idea to promote democracy. Perhaps democracy is an idea best born by others, not exported, to others.