Death of a Dictator

Gaddafi is Gone but was his Killing Deserved?

Muammar Gaddafi is dead, that much is certain. He was beaten and shot in the head and then put on public display for all to see. But was it right?

There are all sorts of stories circulating around the dictator’s demise. There are reported videos of the dictator being sodomized and his body being paraded through the streets.

The defiling of a dictator is nothing new. During World War II, Benito Mussolini, the leader of the Italian Fascist movement, was executed and then spat on and hung by a meat hook from a gas station by a mob of citizens.

Gaddafi deserved to die, but the means of his death only give a temporary bit of justice to those he wronged. He never stood trial what he did to Libyan people during the civil war. He never answered for his violent actions against peaceful demonstrators.

When Saddam Hussein was executed, I am sure there were Kurdish victims of chemical weapons in Northern Iraq wishing Saddam had stood trial for crimes against humanity. Just as now there are probably many Libyans wishing they had official justice against Gaddafi. They will get none.

Gaddafi is dead, victim of a culture he created where dissidents were executed and on broadcast television. His death was broadcast to the entire world via the internet.

The dictator is gone and the clamors for blood have subsided, but there was no lasting justice here. Gaddafi lies in an unmarked grave, just as history will forever be unmarked by crimes he may have committed against his people.