What is it about Libyan despot Mouamar Qaddafi that Western leaders find so irresistible? There’s no mystery about that, nor the unmistakable hypocrisy it represents.
Expressing bile over Western tolerance for the man known in Libya as ‘the Guide,’ this editorial from France’s Le Monde sums it up this way:
“His record is damning. The dashing officer who modeled himself on Egypt’s Nasser has been an across-the-board failure. Now an aging and pathetic despot, he reigns over a country deprived of a constitution, where democracy is an empty word, justice an instrument at the service of power, and the defense of human rights an empty slogan. Economically, the news is no brighter. Sitting atop the greatest petroleum reserves in Africa, the ‘Guide’ has squandered by the hundreds of billions, Libya’s oil-based manna from heaven on weapons purchases or pharaonic projects.”
At issue is that no Western country wants to quarrel with a nation saturated with oil and gas and which has decided to invest every which way possible to make up for lost time. … Italy wants to build highways and refineries … Great Britain is eying the black gold. France hopes to sell it Rafale jets and nuclear power plants. And Switzerland hopes to restore to its bank coffers the petrodollars that the ‘Guide’ has withdrawn. Colonel Qaddafi is judged not very respectable, but the checkbook he’s waving throws Western minds off kilter.
EDITORIAL
Translated By Mary Kenney
September 1, 2009
France – Le Monde – Original Article (French)
Everything was finally ready in Libyan capital Tripoli to celebrate with pomp, for six days beginning September 1, the 40th anniversary of a revolution that in 1969, saw a handful of “free officers” overthrow old King Idris I (king’s photo, left; video of celebration, below). Among the twelve young soldiers who brought the monarchy down without spilling a drop of blood, one of them, a lieutenant of barely 27 years, Mouammar Qaddafi, quickly imposed himself as the absolute master of the country. And he still is.
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