Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi is ending up in the same way he governed Libya ever since his coup in 1969, i.e. with blood, killing and deceit. As for his use of the air force and the artillery and his introduction of mercenaries to kill the Libyan people, it is part of his heritage ever since he faced the first protest or confrontation. Indeed, he brought in mercenaries when he fought the Chadians and distributed massive amounts of money to buy off supporters throughout Africa when he “discovered” the Dark Continent, and before that across the world. He also unleashed mercenaries abroad to liquidate those whom he referred to as being “the errant dogs” and who were merely opposed to the way he managed Libya and its resources. Today, when Gaddafi resorts to mass extermination to eradicate his oppositionists, he considers they are mere “errant dogs.” They are so to him not just because they oppose him, but because he deals this way – as he always has – with the entire Libyan population. He was even stingy at the level of the Libyan oil wealth, thus abstaining from giving its crumbs to his people - around one third of whom are living under the poverty line - at a time when he is wasting billions on his conflicts, illusions and briberies around the world. Gaddafi's story with Libya is not just the story of a tyrant and despotic ruler. It is the “success” story of this dictator who was able to remain in power for over forty years, eventually ending in crowning himself the “king of kings” and the dean of rulers around the world, and managing to polarize the friendship of the world's leaders - especially in Europe - to win a deal or an investment opportunity to be funded by Libyan oil. Gaddafi dealt with the massive energy resources in his country as though they belonged to him personally. Moreover, due to the absence of any other decision-making structure in Libya, he was able to convince the world that his personal consent was the gateway toward benefitting from this wealth. Consequently, the world leaders rushed to woo Gaddafi, at a time when he was exercising the worst kinds of torture against his “errant” people. Furthermore, thanks to the “clearance” he earned from the United States after having paid billions to erase the repercussions of the Lockerbie explosion, in addition to the other billions he paid on a worthless nuclear program which he relinquished, Gaddafi's tent became a place of pilgrimage for Europe's leaders who remained silent vis-à-vis all his domestic practices against his people and his foreign support of all the violent divisions. He thus became more convinced of the fact that his people – who are rejecting the squandering of Libya's wealth that way and are demanding their dignity, freedom and livelihood – are an “errant” people who should be pursued like errant dogs. Gaddafi succeeded in making the Western countries rush to conspire with him against his people, after Washington breathed a “new spirit” into Gaddafi's regime when it accepted his bribery represented by the Lockerbie compensations, and after he opened his country before American companies, disregarding his practices against his people and his excessive violation of all forms of human rights. Domestically, Gaddafi adopted all kinds of lies and deceit. He invented the “Popular Committees” - that are nothing but a group of local customers living off the crumbs of the oil wealth and with the sole task of pursuing the “errant people” - so that the “rule of the people” remains the forefront of his tyrannical authority and so that he can accumulate the tools to control the fate of Libya, its land and people. For that purpose, he distributed internal bribes to ensure tribal and regional alliances that would guarantee his absolute control, although he continued to claim that he was not ruling and that the people were the ones making all the decisions. However, these internal bribes started to diminish due to the greed of the family, and the practices which exceeded the imagination. Eventually, Gaddafi relied on the complicity of the West in the pursuit of his “errant” people. But these angry people who have been oppressed for forty years regained their courage and decided not to be an easy hunt - as they used to be in the past – despite all the weapons used against them by the “brotherly leader.”
