Gadaffi: Crazy Like A Fox

After Nasser’s untimely death in 1970 Gadaffi was never the same . He grew eccentric, then very odd. He styled himself a revolutionary leader, not  a head of state. Libya was to be in permanent semi anarchy, without any real government. As the craziness spread, oil billions poured in, allowing Gadaffi to romance foreign heads of state and influence Africa. Yet Italy, Libya’s former brutal colonial ruler, and now main oil customer, may be eager to get involved against Gaddafi. So, too, Egypt, France, and, of course, the US and Britain because oil remains the ultimate geopolitical aphrodisiac.

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STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

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by Eric  Margolis

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Events in Libya are moving very fast, and their outcome is uncertain. “Leader” Muammar Gadaffi is hunkered down in Tripoli, defended by army units from his tribe and mercenaries from black Africa.

Watching Col. Muammar Gadaffi deliver a bombastic, defiant speech last week from the ruins of Tripoli’s Bab al-Azizia barracks brought me back to 1987 when Libya’s leader led me by the hand through the wreckage of his former residence.

On 14 April, 1986, US aircraft attacked Libya after a Berlin disco frequented by US soldiers was bombed. US President Ronald Reagan blamed Libya and denounced Gadaffi as the “mad dog of the Middle East.”

But a defector from Israel’s Mossad later claimed the US had been duped by a false flag operation into believing Libya was behind the attack.

A 2,000 lb US bomb crashed through the ceiling of Gadaffi’s private quarters. He was outside in his trademark tent. But his 2-year old adopted daughter was killed.  Some 87 other civilians and a few French diplomats were also killed. Americans thought this raid was dandy.

“Why, Mr Eric,” a clearly confused Gadaffi plaintively asked me, “why are the Americans trying to kill me?”

“Because they think you are funding every kind of anti-western group,” I replied. “And they will never forgive you for provoking the rise in Arab oil prices.”

In those long ago days, Gadaffi, who considered himself a passionate revolutionary, supported every militant group that asked for Libyan help, including Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress, various Palestinian groups fighting Israeli occupation, Basque separatists battling Madrid, and the Irish Republican Army.   To Washington, Gadaffi was the world’s arch “terrorist.”

After we spent the evening in his colorful Bedouin tent, I had some fun with Gadaffi. “We may bomb you, Leader, but we also think you are the best-dressed Arab leader.”   Gadaffi, dressed in a custom made, silk Italian jump suit and zippered boots, beamed with pleasure. He asked me where he could get the Ralph Lauren safari jacket I was wearing, adding,   “you look very militant, Mr. Eric.”

I could never get a good fix on Muammar Gadaffi. When he seized power way back in 1969, he was young and very handsome, with movie-star good looks, and an ardent reformist. Gadaffi’s hero and father figure was Egypt’s charismatic Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Gadaffi was never the same after Nasser’s untimely death in 1970. He grew eccentric, then very odd. He styled himself a revolutionary leader, not a head of state. Libya was to be in permanent semi anarchy, without any real government.   As the craziness spread, oil billions poured in, allowing Gadaffi to romance foreign heads of state and influence Africa.

Watching Italy’s PM Silvio Berlusconi, France’s President Nicholas Sarkozy and other world leaders squirm with embarrassment next to Gadaffi decked out in flamboyant, clownish uniforms straight from an Italian “opera buffo” was always amusing.  Everyone mocked Libya’s madcap “Leader,” but loved his money even more.

However zany and bizarre, Gadaffi was clever as a fox and had more lives than a cat.   He survived many attempts on his life mounted by US, British, French and Egyptian intelligence.

In a brilliant ploy, Gadaffi bought a pile of nuclear junk on the black market, then told Washington he was giving up his nuclear weapons program. The naïve Bush administration fell for this ruse and ended its punishing boycott of Libya.

He bought peace with the western powers by allowing them into Libya’s rich oil fields, investing billions in Europe, and joining Bush’s “war on terror.”

But now that Libya is convulsed by revolution, Gadaffi seems to have used up all his nine lives.   He remains hunkered down in Tripoli, defended by army units from his tribe and mercenaries from black Africa who have no problem shooting down demonstrators.

While Libya burns, there are serious discussions afoot in Washington and Europe about imposing an Iraq-style “no fly zone” in Libya, followed by possibly western military intervention. Libya would be “stabilized,” a client regime made up of CIA-organized exiles installed, and Libya’s oil fields made safe for western companies.

Libya would return to pre-Gadaffi days when it was ruled by a British-managed figurehead king, the doddering Ibn Idris. That is, if Libya does not dissolve into tribal and clan warfare, or break up into western and eastern parts.

Italy, Libya’s former brutal colonial ruler, and now main oil customer, may be eager to get involved. So, too, Egypt, France, and, of course, the US and Britain. Oil remains the ultimate geopolitical aphrodisiac.

If driven from Tripoli, Gadaffi will take refuge in his tribe’s territory, in Italy or Venezuela. His five spoiled, feuding sons are unlikely to emerge as Libya’s new rulers. All dictators seem to have terrible problems with their out-of-control sons.

Gadaffi is a sad example of the maxim about absolute power corrupting absolutely. People like me who relish political theater of the absurd will miss the “Leader;” but most of his people, I suspect, will not.

copyright Eric S. Margolis 2011

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