Mad Dog Put Down

The death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (also Qadafi, Kadafi, etc.) is not just a seminal moment in Libyan history but global history as well. Through his idiosyncrasies he garnered international mirth, through his crimes international notoriety – simply, he was one of the most infamous of current national leaders.
Was. Past tense. Though his death will be unlamented (except maybe by unreconstructed South African ANC politicians), the manner of his death is deeply troubling. The Transitional National Council (which should resign imminently as per its promise after liberation) claims Gaddafi was killed in crossfire between the rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces but how they would they know, far away in Benghazi as they are? A BBC journalist on the ground in Sirte has, on camera, a fighter claiming Gaddafi was captured and then shot with a 9mm pistol.
It is sad that Libya has opened a new chapter in its national narrative with extra-judicial murder (Mutaissim Gaddafi, one of the sons was also apprehended alive and then somehow died later, as also occurred to the Jamahiryah’s National Security Chief). There can be no clearer summing-up of the ill-discipline rife in the rebel army that a hothead can take it upon themselves to deliver justice. As World War Two drew to a close in Europe, Allied armies took great pains to arrest as many Nazi leaders alive as possible, so the judgement of history would have a legal framework. Most faced the hangman but not all (bar one acquittal, the rest faced long prison terms), giving the whole process more credence. In Gulf War Two, Saddam Hussein was found cowering in a hole much like Gaddafi – but US troops didn’t bundle him into the back of the truck and shoot him in the head. Bar shaving off much of his facial hair to make him recognisable, they did not in obvious way mistreat him. In the end, the Iraqi courts saw fit to execute him but not before he was made accountable of many of his atrocities. Gaddafi said he would die fighting on Libyan soil and, ironically given the rebel hatred of him, he got what he claimed he wanted. A warrior’s death is far too honourable for such a monster.
One person said last night ‘you live by the sword, you die by the sword’, but revenge is a dish best served cold. There is no uncertainty and Gaddafi’s removal from the scene in unequivocal but democratic politicians deal with uncertainty and must perforce equivocate as part of governing. Years of public dishonouring in court, a daily reminder of how low he had been brought, would have been far greater punishment. The issue of who would try him – the Libyans or the International Criminal Court – is now as dead as the indicted and he can no longer spread, at the least verbally, the poison of insurgency. Yet a sour taste persists that Gaddafi was not brought to book in a crushing – for him – legal setting.
Libyans must now get on with rebuilding their country and reining in the excess that led to Gaddafi’s premature death. The whole institution of government – judiciary, legislature and executive – must be created from almost a standing start and civil society – freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience – must be encouraged to prevent backsliding into corrupt and/or undemocratic ways. There is a splendid example just over the border in Tunisia, who will be holding genuinely competitive elections this Sunday (something that should also shame Egypt into speedier action in its political transformation). We in the West can only wish the Libyans well and give them every possible assistance to complete the democratic revolution.