Your Villain My Hero

We grew up in an age of wars and global conflicts. Foreign diplomacy weighed by either international assistance or isolation. Where military maneuvers and political alliances go hand in hand.

Old folks tell us about times when there were initiatives drawn on common global interests and ideological identities. Those were times of Zulfiqar Bhutto in my country, King Faisal in Saudi Arabia, Anwar Sadaat In Egypt and Colonel Gaddafi in Libya.

Those were days when these men aspired their people with euphoria from an uncharted dreamscape. Equality, opportunity and above all sovereignty. Where no foreign aggression, occupation or diplomatic pressure could be exerted on individual states. Bhutto packaged "power to the people", while Arafat vowed for independence, Faisal voiced Palestinian Jihad, Qaddafi envisioned Muslim unity and governing reforms, so on and so on.

What happened, then?

• 24 March, 1975 - King Faisal was assassinated by his nephew.
• 4 April, 1979 - Bhutto was Hanged after a military coupe in Pakistan.
• 6 October, 1981 - Sadat was gunned during a military parade.
• 11 November 2004 - Arafat died in Coma, his illness remains a mystery.
• 30 Dec, 2006 - Saddam was hanged on Eid Day, after Foreign invasion.
• 20 Oct, 2011 - Qaddafi vandalized and killed by Libyan rebels.

Today the Body of Libyan revolutionary leader Colonel Qaddafi was laid to rest, before dawn at an un marked placed in Libyan desert.

What started in February was reported to be a public protest in couple of cities of Libya, against Qaddafi rule. Unlike Tunisian and Egyptian spring, Qaddafi used force against those protesters which quickly licensed NATO and US to start operating a bombardment program against Libyan Forces. International reporters were calling it a mere force of 3000 guerrilla fighters, up til few weeks earlier. Not to mention all the aerial bombardment inside Libya which systematically broke the Libyan defense force. Cruise missiles, drone planes, Italian, French fighter jets and bombers, with billions of dollars worth of sophisticated technology that first crippled the Libyan forces. Then city after city these rebels (turned freedom fighters) cleared the areas of any Qaddafi loyalists and supporters. Finally pushed back, in his home town Sirte, Qaddafi breathed his last. Where upon fleeing in a convoy he was bombed by NATO fighter jets, only to be later brutally vandalized and killed by a mob of rebels.

Where have all the good men gone?

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You may also like to read an old related Blog about Arab Spring:
Hot Pursuit revolt