Colonel Qadaffi — a consummate eccentric — leaves many legacies: stunning artificial rivers, tortured dissidents, state-sponsored terrorism, golden statues & palaces, legions of gun-wielding female bodyguards, dark stains on solicitous Western leaders, and what was (before the invasion) by some metrics the highest standard of living in Africa.
Yet surely his greatest legacy will be the impact that his deposition and death will have on paranoid dictators around the world and their ongoing hunt for nuclear arms. There are many differences between North Korea and Libya, but the fact remains that there has been no “muscular humanitarian intervention” with nuclear-armed North Korea, even while North Koreans starve. Kim Jong-Il has treated the West with contempt, issuing nothing but threats. Qadaffi frequently courted the West, and even parked Libyan assets with Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. And ultimately Qadaffi — who by all measures did more for his people in terms of infrastructure, raising the standard standard-of-living, and upholding individual liberties than Kim Jong-Il — was slaughtered in the street after a NATO-backed invasion.
Eurasian despots will take two lessons from this:
- Nuclear weapons are an essential prerequisite to holding off NATO-sponsored regime change.
- Western nations and organisations — including NATO, the United States, Britain, France and the UN — cannot be trusted.
azizonomics 
North Korean nukes are nothing more than a technological scam. South Korea and USA well know this – what really scares them is biological weapons and the possible intervention of China.
Qaddafi should have been tried. A Kangaroo court does nothing for the Democratic hopes of a new Libya. Perhaps he tried to shoot his way out, but like Osama Bin Laden, he never had his day in Court.
We have seen what is happening to the Coptics in Egypt; How the Egyptian economy is in a tailspin from lack of tourists.
Qaddaffi was an eccentric, but I agree, Libyas wealth flowed to the bottom of society. So what if he had a few Gold objects, wore questionable fashion, was eccentric. Most people with a Genius streak are different.
It is a sad day for Islamic Democracy. It willbe interesting to see if they adopt European manners in their democratic system. Democracy relies on reasoned argument, and information so people can vote. Not thuggery.
there is one far more important message: rebellion against petrodollar shall not be tolerated. any idea for a gold backed currency will meet UAVs first.
I thought Qaddafi and co were supposed to have learnt that after 2003?
That might have been NATO’s intent, but there is no way American aggression can hold back this anti-petrodollar tide: the non-Western nations just have too much, way too much to gain.
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