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| Photo from tundratabloid.com |
Moammar Gaddafi (or any of the countless other ways his name is spelled), routed out of a drain in his hometown of Sirte by National Transition Council rebels Thursday, died of a bullet wound to the head, according to autopsy results released today. The image of Gaddafi above shows him well before his capture because Ham on Wry prefers not to use the grisly photos that abound on the internet. Readers can easily find pictures of him after his death, if interested.
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| Photo of Gaddafi in Uniform from Quartetbooks.wordpress.com |
Not only do accounts of how he died vary widely, translations of his last words differ as well. Several articles popped up yesterday stating that he asked his captors, "Do you know right from wrong?", while today, he is purported to have asked, "What have I done to you?" Whether only one or the other is true, or both have merit makes little difference in terms of irony. After 42 years of leadership, the atrocities attributed to him would fill volumes. Clearly, he didn't understand right from wrong when he ordered the bombing of Pan Am flight 273 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 243 passengers, 16 crew members, and 11 people on the ground. We could well have asked Gaddafi, "Do you know right from wrong?" Many unanswered questions still exist today relating to that tragedy, and relatives of those who perished have expressed relief that Gaddafi is finally dead.
If he said, "What have I done to you?", Gaddafi was speaking to rebels who have suffered under his repressive leadership for years and could probably have provided hundreds, if not thousands, of valid answers. Either way, Gaddafi clearly did not live within the realm of reality. Whether he is labeled as a psychopath or sociopath, one truth emerges from the study of his eccentricities and bizarre attire at times. He had little regard for his people and used them like toys to be discarded when he tired of them. His charm was designed to accomplish his aims and was insincere at best and intentionally misleading at worst. That he died in ignominy is fitting. His death ends a dictatorship, and we can only hope that something better will replace his rule.
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