LIBYA…that is the question?

Since the recent death of Libyan leader/dictator Mohmar Ghadafi,  I have been commenting in different forums about Libya and its citizens in a post-revolution era. What perplexes me though, is that I seem to always be at odds with everyone else on this subject, upsetting some folks with my views on the post-death treatment of Ghadafi.  I just want to say up front, that is NOT my intention. I have a very unique perspective on global issues, and I have a very aggressive nature when it comes to truly understanding perspectives different from my own. I say this because I cannot let this issue go. I want to know why the Libyan people are almost completely ignored, while Ghadafi is now being hailed as some kind of martyr for African countries other than his own…I don’t get it.

When Ghadafi was killed there were several opinions about the actions taken by the United States. Personally, I applauded the President’s efforts and the way the administration handled the entire situation…and that is from both military and human rights perspectives. I had very little issue with the way Ghadafi was tracked and eventually killed, because he had committed horrendous acts of terror and torture against the people of Libya for 40+ years…one of the most despicable dictators ever in my opinion.

However, there are MANY Americans who are beyond angry with the U.S. and President Obama, laying out all the super-secret Illuminati theories about what happened and saying that America is continuing to kill people for oil. The kicker is that they are condemning the death of Ghadafi because, they say, he was one of the most generous world leaders who did so much to help struggling African countries. Funny thing — that is true to a certain extent. He is still praised by many Black Africans for his generosity, and even has schools and palaces and government buildings dedicated to him in East African countries such as Ethiopia.

BUT…what did he do for and to the people of his own country??? He suppressed them. He tortured them. He hunted them down (even  when they were in exile in other countries), and he killed them. Once he even ordered the killing of an entire confinement facility of Libyan prisoners. He rounded them up in a common area of the prison, and then ordered the guards to shoot until every last one of them was dead — WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF MONSTER WOULD DO THAT TO OTHER HUMAN BEINGS???!!!

Now I don’t advocate assassinating folks all willy-nilly, but I’m glad he’s dead. And when you really think about what happened, in the end it was Libyan citizens who dragged his ass out of a hole and did the deed…not the drone missile. For ALL his years of crime against humanity, I CANNOT shed tears just because he gave some backhanded $$$ to other African countries…

But really, how does all this good that he supposedly did for people OUTSIDE of Libya negate the lives of all the Libyan citizens he ordered killed — in his OWN country — over a 42-year period. I  don’t get it. I have seen children with bulletholes in their foreheads because of the wishes of people in positions…like Ghaddafi. And I am all for uplifting African peoples.  But how do you justify accepting monetary support from a so-called leader with nothing but blood on his soul? How does a leader of another African country accept support from someone who ordered him to be assassinated??? YES…this is true!

I know I’m not wrong when I say that this situation is a straight up Mafia scenario. I equate what these African nations have done over the years with accepting the support of a mass murderer or a true Mafioso godfather.

And as far as the killing of Ghadafi, as far as I’m concerned he was a Dead Man Walking anyway – he was going to die at the hands of the Libyan people anyway. The “revolution” wanted him terminated. And even that disturbs me, because it seems as though the Libyan people would have been treated with disdain and demonized if they had found and killed Ghadafi even without the help of NATO.

I have seen tons of statistics that folks share and data discovered through my own research that are biased towards justifying the praise of Ghadafi.  I am not looking at this from the perspective of partisan politics….this is a HUMAN RIGHTS issue.  All I can figure is that the conspiracy theories about US intervention in foreign affairs trumps the reality of taking human life without justification. This really hurts me to the core of my soul because I will NEVER be able to grasp how statistics cancel out the unscrupulous “canceling out” of human lives…men, women, AND children.

If there is something that I am really not seeing, please enlighten me…until then, my heart continues to weep…

Another epiphany…in all my years of working international diplomacy issues, what still frightens and perplexes me is the selective collective nature of American leaders and citizen s when addressing or confronting various kinds of human threats across the globe. What we rarely, if ever, do is try to put ourselves in empathetic perspectives and think about how we would feel if some of these same things were happening to us here in this country. How would WE feel if armed masked individuals knocked down our front doors and snatched our son, daughter, grandparent, mother, father…with no explanation – and either murdered them on the spot, or took them away, never allowing us to know their fates.

What’s really getting me, now that I think about it, is that I have yet to come across ANYONE else who sees that bigger picture…the way I do.

Last (and again), what is always brought up about Ghaddafi/Qadafi (or whatever his true name was) is stuff about countries OTHER THAN HIS OWN…and I keep saying that I don’t get it because I really don’t. It’s as if the Libyan people are not worthy of existence. They are like illegal Mexicans, and we are Jan Brewer or some extremist Arizona zealots channeling Herman Kochaine and his magical electric fence. Why does NO ONE ever have any consideration for the LIBYAN people?

One more thing…I just want to make it clear that I am NOT presenting arguments for whether or not NATO and the US should have used drones to attack Ghadafi. I don’t, and never have, advocated indiscriminate killing – even as a Soldier. I have my personal opinions about it, but I would never try and debate that anyway. I am simply focused on why there is so much praise for a person who committed the atrocities that he did against his own country and peoples. And you can throw around the so-called propaganda and slander theme, but I can counter that with direct knowledge of classified information that STILL makes me sick to my fucking stomach…

I – DO – NOT – GET – IT!