Gaddafi Dead — So What?
What a myopic view the Western media and its array of “experts” have concerning the so-called “Arab Spring” — a myopia that naturally metastasizes among the general public.
Consider the Libyan crisis. As usual, the focus is entirely on the individual, the tangible — the now dead Gaddafi — whom all the blame can be heaped upon, while the existentialist elephant in the room, the real mover and shaker, the spirit of the age behind all these uprisings, is never acknowledged.
So another Arab dictator has been eliminated, and the talking heads are abuzz: some, whose knowledge of the world and reality is chronically limited to their own experience, naively cry “democracy!” (even as those who butchered Gaddafi were crying “Allahu Akbar!”); others cautiously include the usual boilerplate caveats in their analyses, which otherwise also remain parochial.
Either way, as many interpret events in Libya, they project their own values and notions of right and wrong, good and bad — most notably by portraying the Arab uprisings as positive signs of democracy — thereby demonstrating, yet again, their inability to comprehend Islam’s distinct civilization, let alone the Closing of the Muslim Mind.
I am reminded of an especially pertinent observation by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:
The discovery of truth is prevented most effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, nor directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice [in this case, by the Western notion that all people want a secular, liberal democracy], which as a pseudo a priori stands in the path of truth and is then like a contrary wind driving a ship away from land, so that sail and rudder [reality and those who present it] labor in vain.
Indeed, other 19th century Germans, such as Hegel, understood that world events, far from being inextricably tied to individual leaders, were products of the Zeitgeist, defined as: “The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation … the spirit, attitude, or general outlook of a specific time or period … the general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people.”
Consider Libya’s neighbor, Egypt, as described in Inside Egypt. The author’s otherwise prescient argument was that revolution was in the air; however, he too took the narrow view, ignoring the “spirit of the time.” My review of the book, written before the Egyptian revolution, is especially applicable today:
Unfortunately, there is a myopic tendency to view nearly every problem in Egypt as a byproduct of Husni Mubarak, Egypt’s president since 1981, and in [the author] Bradley’s view, the “most corrupt offender of them all.” Even things one might have supposed were products of time or chance — from the condition of Egypt’s Bedouin, who have led the same desperate lifestyle for centuries, to the radicalization of Muslims, a worldwide phenomenon—are somehow traced back to Mubarak. … Indeed, this is the book’s chief problem. Bradley is convinced that, given a chance, through the elimination of Mubarak, Egyptians would create a liberal, egalitarian, and gender-neutral society. … And while he is convinced that Egypt is a byproduct of Mubarak, one is left wondering instead whether Mubarak is a byproduct of Egypt.
It often takes an outside observer to see things in proper perspective. This is excellent, repeated here from the article by Raymond Ibraham, in this paste below. He’s got a very informative newsletter, by the way.
…..”The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting an inexperienced man like him with the presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”
I remember seeing this quote before though I didn’t know it was Raymond brihim. Yes, it is an asture observation of what is wrong with this country. It’s the result of a secular culture that has no sense of history or the future, but one that only thinks in the present.
And a non-secular culture has that perspective?
And what makes you think we’re secular now? We were founded by Classical scholars (Greco-Roman) which were products of the Enlightenment.
In the revival yeas of the 19th century, we replaced that secular society with the religion of Marx, who then got into a battle with the religion of superstition (Christianity) that’s been raging ever since.
Remember that for the centuries called the Dark Ages, facts that didn’t fit scripture were rejected.
The so-called Dark Age was a result of the collapse of the ancient pagan civilization as hordes of barbarians moved into its former territory. Christianity eventually civilized these Europeans while preserving many elements of the earlier culture. See, Jean Seznec, The Survival of the Pagan Gods. The Christians not only preserved ancient European culture but created the foundation for the Renaissance. See, Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.
Indeed, the forces that offed Gaddafi had it relatively easy as he was universally despised by the West and by the caliphate as well. His attempts at gaining “respect in the family” by orchestrating some terrorist activity fell on deaf ears amongst the ruling class elites in the mid-east. He was never going to be accepted by the rest of the sand-people “leaders” as he just didn’t have whatever ingredient is required to sit at the cool table.
But while the media is trying to hammer out a template of “freedom” for the Libyans and, admittedly, it is fairly wonderful to see Libyan citizens speak the word “freedom” aloud on the BBC, I’m afraid it’s not going to happen that way. I fear another Iran, actually and as this unfolds, right now, the islam radicals are calculating, scheming and setting up a gangster turf war over who gets what. The oil is the biggest prize but power over the people of Libya, to feed the islamic machine is another. There won’t be any industrial growth, free markets, freedom of speech, ability for women to go to school, etc. Not gonna happen.
It is going to remain under rule by a replacement dictator who will now be regarded as “acceptable” by the leaders of the radical islamic movement and who will play ball with them. Watch for the resurgence of Libyan-based terrorist activity against the West, not less.
On the mark. People today forget that when Khomeini overthrew the Shah in 1978 (with the passive-aggressive Carterites quietly cheering him on), he and the mullahs were seen as “reformers”, the Shah was called “corrupt” (because he was trying to “Westernize” Iran- oh, the horror!), and the MSM was full of hosannas about a “new dawn” of multicultural enlightenment, with “authentic Islam” offering a viable alternative to Western “cultural imperialism”.
Well, we all know how that turned out now. Although I’m pretty sure that at least some of the “enlightened elite’” in the West still haven’t gotten the memo.
There only three basic types of cultures. They are either clan-based, tribalist, or cosmopolitan. A clan-based culture is one where family is all-important; who you are related to by blood. A tribalist culture is one in which what group you are part of is the important thing; who you are with. A cosmopolitan culture is one in which the culture, as a whole, is valued (though some parts may be valued more than the facts warrant; but that’s a subject for another time).
Clan and tribalist cultures are xenophobic by definition. With a strong tendency to blame their societal ills on “foreign influences” completely outside their own “group”, whether those influences actually are responsible or not, or even exist. One nasty side-effect of this is that anyone within the clan, or tribe, who points out that most of their problems are self-induced tends to be branded as a heretic, and shunned- or worse, just ends up rather messily dead.
And when such cultures become large and powerful enough, they can become threats to everybody outside their circumscribed definition of “us”. Two of the three Axis powers in World War Two, Germany and Japan, were “tribalist”; Japan by the nature of its national culture dating back thousands of years, Germany because of too much emphasis on the German Romantics and their notions of “racial purity”. (Il Duce tried to make Italy revert to tribalism, with his “Roman Empire Redux” business, but it never quite took.) It’s worth noting that Germany and Japan became the very cosmopolitan cultures they are today after not just military defeat, but near-total destruction. Italy, by comparison, saw the handwriting on the wall in 1943- just as they had in 1915.
The Islamic world, overall, is mostly tribalist with some pockets of out-and-out clanism. (Think; Yemen or Somalia, with their interminable “You and Me against those guys down the street” versions of civil war.) This is a serious influence on not only Islamic states’ policies, but their social attitudes and the way their people view the rest of the world.
Until that changes, don’t expect too much change in that part of the world.
clear ether
eon
Very well said. Talk to any officer back from Iraq or Afghanistan and they’ll all tell you that our State Dept. is a bunch of idiots who don’t understand the tribal nature of those countries.
And inbreeding….Don’t forget about the inbreeding.
Japan is still tribalist and xenophobic…the only thing that has changed is that they are no longer willing (or in fact able) to sacrifice their standard of living through militaristic conquests.
“Although I’m pretty sure that at least some of the ‘enlightened elite’ in the West still haven’t gotten the memo.”
Sad but true.
I generally agree with your main point, but I find that the analysis of the “multitude of fools” who elect a “prince of fools”, while partially true, needs to be enriched with a reflection about the way in which totalitarianism (a true Zeitgeist) attacks a free society. Those fools have been made fools by militants who have carefully, and for decades, brainwashed generations of students in the schools, in the universities, and through the media.
Have we been fools in allowing this ? Certainly, but we can also say that the honest citizen of a free society does not expect the deep conspiracy, and the betrayal of all societal rules that we found in the totalitarians’ actions.
Excellent point. We didnt get to our current site of massive ignorance and moral decay because we’re fools, not all of us anyway, but rather because we placed trust in our institutions and those that chose to serve within them. We never expected that trust to be violated and our cultural, political, and educational, institutions to be infiltrated and taken over by people who have purposefully sought to destroy us from within. As Americans we generally expected all of our fellow citizens to love our country as we do and to do everything within their power to protect it. Now we have slowly come to the realization that the forces of tyranny and darkness started their long, slow, and quiet march through our institutions over 100 years ago and only now do we understand how deep is the rot, how burrowed in are our enemies, and how close we are to losing our republic.
You’ve got that right.
The lamestream media is peddling the myth of the “Arab Spring.” We’ve suffered through four bad presidents since Reagan left office, who are foolish enough to believe that “nation-building” can succeed in a Muslim country, and who actually think that they can carve out a sphere of influence for the US in the Muslim world.
Rep. Allen West: “There is no such thing as an Arab Spring.”
Those in high places shiver and shake as they look at the rotting flesh of the once mighty Qaddafi. All must obey the Uniform Financial Order if they are to die naturally.
In Libya, “The brigade for purging slaves, black skin”
- slogan seen painted in rebel country.
There is mostly silence about the horrors taking place against Libya’s blacks.
STOP the GENOCIDE of Blacks by the U.S. backed cruel Libya rebels!
The Obama-supported rebels left in charge are now conducting a “large scale cleaning in the areas under their control with the extermination of all blacks in the capital”, according to The Independent.
Barbaric atrocities, kidnappings and ruthless genocide of blacks in Libya by US/France/NATO backed Al-Qaeda/Hezbollah rebels has been going on for months.
US/NATO who have waged war for months for Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda
who MURDER our troops in Iraq-are RESPONSIBLE for stopping the genocide.
US/NATO are also responsible for rescuing the many terrified blacks kidnapped by the rebels, including the kidnapped black children who have been horrifically abused by the black-hater Muslim rebels.
Blacks must have human rights!
STOP THE GENOCIDE!
For too long we’ve been dragged over to the Arab/Muslim point of view of the Middle East by our liberals and leftists, in which the dominant theme is that of Western imperialism. This has meant that issues of how women, gays, and various minorities (both ethnic and religious) are treated in that part of the world has been swept under the rug.
The Black guest workers in Libya are suffering the wrath of the victors for three reasons:
1. The had nothing to gain by supporting the uprising, so they did not support it (many tried to leave, but the government wouldn’t let them.
2. A significant number of Gaddafi’s mercenaries were Black, so skin color became a liability.
3. A significant number of the Black guest workers were Christians, making them targets of the Muslims.
United together in JIHAD, US/NATO, Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah triumph over Libya.
Admiral James Stavridis, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and the commander of the U.S. European Command told the U.S. Senate that Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah fighters are among the Libyan rebels currently receiving support from the US and its NATO allies. This was confirmed by one of the Libyan rebel officers, Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, who leads one of the Al-Qaeda units.
U.S/NATO joined with Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah terrorists to wage war.
Gadaffi did some terrible things. But US/NATO consider barbaric Al Qaeda and barbaric Hezbollah to be good guys to be placed in power in Libya? US/NATO have great guilt in making the world a far more dangerous place.
Secretary of State Hillary Randham Clinton told an NBC interviewer Thursday that rebel forces had worried that Kadafi could still “be recruiting mercenaries, paying with the gold they believe he had absconded with.”
The majority of blacks voted for Obama for the sole reason Obama is black (half black). Many whites probably voted for Obama because they thought it would be “cool” to have a black president.
Mainstream media has enormous guilt in covering up and ignoring alarming facts that were known about Obama. Without the help of the extremely powerful media, it would have been impossible for Obama to have been elected.
Watch it and weep for this great nation and people:
Fall of the Republic HQ full length version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU&noredirect=1
Colin Powell said it best, “You broke it, you own it.” Now NATO, especially the United States, “owns” Libya. That country, with its total lack of central authority, now has the possibility of becoming Somalia with a lot of oil. There could be massive tribal fighting, just like there was in Iraq after Saddam Hussein fell. Remember, Iraq has a lot of oil too, but that did NOT bring any stability to that country. So before the Obama administration starts patting itself on its back for what they have done in Libya, let’s see what the next year will bring. Because if it’s anything like Iraq, Obama will regret the day he ever got involved in that miserable country.
“…the Obama administration starts patting itself on its back for what they have done in Libya…”
What, exactly did this administration “do” in Libya?
The French air attack was what waylaid the convoy Daffy was in and it’s doubtful they even knew who or what was in it. The US had zippo involvement in this particular op. Therefore, Captain Zero has no credit due him.
The pundits and loopy-lefties are already trying to give him credit. He had no knowledge of it until he got up around 10AM….had his Diet Coke or whatever pooftah thing he does in the morning and listened the droning reports from his inner-circle.
O-Dumbo has been more and more isolated by his own preference. He’s a narcissist, remember and things aren’t going his way and he’s cratering in the polls. Fast & Furious is fixing to bite his butt and he knows it. He’s the only passenger in the plane that’s going down in flames and he just realized the pilots bailed out 10,000 feet ago.
He’s doing a “Hitler’s Bunker” scenario like in “Downfall” but not so dramatic. He has his lapdogs that tell him he’s tops and they agree with everything he says. Even his own cabinet is shut out, for the most part.
Credit for getting the K-man? No. Emphatically, categorically, most definitely…no.
OK, enough already… time to move on. Political punditry and foreign policy flap-doodle will only stress us all. The Libyan rebels won and the outcome is uncertain, just as in Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to put barbed wire around the entire area to keep them corralled. Let’s move on.
Then, the next time you play Scrabble, on your third move put all remaining letters on the board and declare. If your opponents complain, just tell them it spells Gadaffi, or Khadaffy, or whatever…
– refugees who jump the fence head for Italy.
And, yup, my son tracked them down in Italy and caught them as they tried to penetrate US bases.
Excellent points, especially the ethnocentricity of the West’s “best and brightest” as they bring us the new world once again. Given that just about anything and M and M’s milk chocolate count as revolutions for the chatty class, I can’t wait until the pretrial executions start in the United States–apparently through DOJ’s fast and furious gun walking program such selective state liquidations have already begun among Mexican nationals, specifically drug cartel members; perhaps a UN investigation of Eric Holder for crimes against humanity is in order? As the man in the White House never tires of observing, we’re not exceptional–which makes one wonder about those American core values he touts that doesn’t apparently permit torture and enhanced interrogations and military tribunals. “We came, we saw, he died,” sums of our neo-Roman Secretary of State’s reaction to Gadaffi’s killing. Curious that those same people praising Gadaffi’s execution can’t apply the same logic to their own death rows populated by a condemned that at least had trials and all the trappings that come with the rule of law.
Ya, Obama claims victory for the planet when Alawahi, bin Laden and now Gaddafi are eliminated and seems to have mentally detached himself from the slaughter in Iran, Syria and Egypt (and, of course, Lebanon). Somehow our participation in Libya was conveniently down-played, else he infuriate the anti-war crowd, but he can cheer the Occupy Wall Street loons and it all keeps his shrinking base happy. What the hell is going on? Is he a psychopath? Then, you read the articles about the ‘bus tour’ and none of the stops had public events: even when he shopped for pumpkins it was only staged for the media. This is playing out like a George Carlin comedy session.
Islam has always been radical. Muhammad was radical. It is just Islam did not have the money to spread world wide until lately.
I wonder what the color for green is in Greek. Chloric? The fourth horse that brings death? The religion of death.
Hummm.
Conservatives crave liberty. The left along with politicians of all stripes crave power. We know it and they know it.
The battle is for the stooges in the middle who fall for slogans like “Hope and Change”.
Funny. Might make a successful sitcom. So many earnest commentators. Such high expectations. Wonderful farce.
And now a little something from the nihilists.
There are also economic forces at play. Mohammed Bouazizi set everything off because bureacrats would not let him make living selling vegetables.
Arab countries inherit command economies of the old Arab Nationalist days. Command economies will never create prosperity. Egypt can not even feed itself and relies of food aid.
There is no reason to think economies will get any better under Muslim Brotherhood. Arab societies will keep churning. Sunni and Shia will square up for the next brawl, before they come after us.
I thought the quote from a ‘Czech newpaper’ was very astute. Obama is not the danger but simply the figurehead for the true danger which is the corrupt and informal ideology called Political Correctness in the same way Mubarak was just the figurehead for a corrupt and rich elite group of the Egyptian military that has ruled and will continue to rule. The worry about the Islamization of Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood is no worse now than under Mubarak and if the MB gets too big for its britches they will be dealt with as they were under Mubarak.
It is tempting to lay one template on the ‘Arab Spring’ and I think it is a mistake to do so. The idea that Egyptians have absolutely no interest in democracy is false and comparing that desire, for good or ill, to Syria or Yemen or Libya is false as well.
If there is one template, in my opinion, the Arab Spring has been brought on, generally speaking, by population growth that has outstripped the ability of the middle east to provide incomes to families that insist on having so many children. For example, there are twice as many people in Egypt now as in 1970. Each country has its own nuance and religious/ethnic take on this but the root cause is people clamouring for a share of the pie.
The US has a similar situation but brought on by 30 million people entering the US in the last 20 years, illegal and legal, outstripping the ability of the economy to grow, keeping wages low and once again, as in OWS, people are clamouring for a piece of the pie.
Gaddafi did a lot of bad things to his people, that’s why he was killed. If you don’t know what Gaddafi did and why he was hated by his people, this article gives a great explanation on it.
http://explainlikeakid.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-gaddafi-was-killed.html
You miss the point. The issue was not whether Qaddafi was bad, it’s whether he was typical. Read “The Arab Mind” by Raphael Patai, a critical work for westerners trying to understand not only Islam but the Arab culture that drives it. Tyranny is endemic to the Arab mind set. They understand the concept of democracy, but are almost totally incapable of setting aside the tribal identities and conflicts that lead to leaders like Qaddafi. It is this tribal culture that drives everything political in the Middle East, and unfortunately our leadership seems to be almost totally incapable of understanding it and its implications.
The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting an inexperienced man like him with the presidency.
This has been worrying me for a while. Too many – even in the TEA party – have been concentrated solely upon getting rid of Obama and “winning” the 2012 election. But how do we take back the changes that have been inflicted upon our society in the meantime? The multitudes that rely on government handouts, and will act just like the citizens in Greece if denied their dole? How do we reverse the march of the homosexual rights advocates, the abortion rights advocates, and the drug legalization crowd? How do we take back our schools and colleges? Yes, the OWS crowd is the legacy of the 1960′s hippies, but they are not peculiar aberrations; there are far too many of them.
There is no stopping the American advantage in their goal for domination of the worlds economies. Russia and China realize that the U.S.is on its way, and there is nothing they can do to stop that unbeatable American advantage.
Why do you think that they’ve been supporting the Democratic party in the U.S.? (Remember the Chinese donations to Bill Clinton?)
When it all goes belly-up in a few years, and after Reps take the whitehouse in 2012, Dems will blame that failure on the Rep Prez for not continuing Obama’s glorious ride to freedom. COUNT on that!
Brilliant article. Really got to me.
The left made “the long march” through our culture.
Education, music, movies, news/ opinion media, government, labor unions, public utilities, & bureacracies are all politically and culturally leftist.
Big business/Wall-Street is neutral and gives money to left and right. More to the left because the left can hurt them. Sadly even the Chamber of Commerece is amoung the Obama “Stimulati” who seek to benefit from gubmint largesse. GM is owned by the Federales. GE lives off gubmint contracts. Wall Street
Outposts of conservatism include the military, police departments, elements of main street type businesses that are too small for corporate welfare.
“Outposts of conservatism include the military, police departments, elements of main street type businesses that are too small for corporate welfare.”
Those outposts have been targeted and are being decimated. You think the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” was a fluke? Peace studies groups have been focusing on that for years as a way to weaken the US military. Any conservative institution, public or private, is the enemy and a target. Military, church, business, family… their hate has purpose.
Quite accurate.
Add to that defunding the military and woman in combat. They will try to stop shale oil projects in Dakoata, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Redifining family so two men can adopt a baby. Going for the throat on the Catholic Church scandals.
David Horowitz said that with the left the issue is never the issue. The issue is always power.
“Add to that defunding the military and woman in combat. … Going for the throat on the Catholic Church scandals.”
I was going to add those points to my first statement, but shortned it up. You are astute about the issues and (the leftist) goals. Funny thing is, when the do win all they end up creating is places like Detroit.
“David Horowitz said that with the left the issue is never the issue. The issue is always power.”
True. He also once mentioned, that if the american left could pull off mass murder of their opponents and their families, they would.
I live in San Francisco. Libs come here from all over the world. They skew toward the the smart and nerdy. I think they were mocked in HS & harbor real intense anger toward traditional america.
The other thing I notice about them is that they are real cold lie gang members. They are not tough or intimidating like gang members, just cold – devoid of humor, or humanity.
I think it is their separation from God that does this to them.
Heard a top-of-the-hour AP or FOX news update on XM tonight about Libya. They said everyone in Libya was thrilled that Quadaffy was gone and that they can’t wait to get the new “government” in place even though it might take a while because they essentially have no civil society. Whatever group is about to assume control and “lead” Libya to the promised land of democracy first wants to take the various tribal militia’s guns away. You know, the crews who fought and ultimately aced Quadaffy? Great idea. Let them take the guns away so some other strong-arm dudes can rule with their iron fists. I’m sure the militias will go for that.
Indonesian Muslims are Sunni’s so its strange to see HUSSEIN the Affirmative Action, Anchor Baby, Teleprompter Kid and USURPER POTUS giving Shi’ ite Iran so much free rein with its Nuclear Weapons and its Client State of Syria and its Terrorists groups Hamas and Hezboallah. He has also just opened up Iraq for the Iranians by withdrawing all US Troops and in effect, and certainly in Mohammedan minds, RUNNING AWAY. So why is the Community Organizer betraying his Sunni CULT who knows maybe he buys in to the whole Shia Armageddon BS and the take over of the world by Islam. But what he certainly is not doing is acting in the best interest of Western Civilization but then he never was a WESTERNER was he.
By the way take some time to think about all the “Allahu Akbar”ing that is going and can be seen in every video from Egypt to Palestine to Libya in fact everywhere that Mohammedans get together to express their RAGE and dominance.
Allahu akbar, does NOT mean “God is great” as left wing moonbats love to think and as Mohammedans are so pleased they do think it is after all far more Politically Correct and Multi Culti than what it REALLY means.
In Arabic, “God” = Allah and “great” = kabeer.
Allahu means “My/Our God” and akbar means “greater.”
Allahu akbar, therefore, means “My/Our God is greater [than yours].”
So when a Mohammedan shouts this, he is being very clear about his motive: jihad, the holy struggle to defend Islam by killing infidels. So apart from confirming that Terrorist Acts are Mohammedan in nature it also exposes the reality of Islam because if THEIR god is greatest then there must be perforce other ‘lesser’ Gods. Which reveals Islams Polytheistic roots and it also reveals the confrontational and supremacist nature of Islam. Needless to say the Mohammedans are very happy that the moronic moonbats and the Islamophile, antisemitic Lame Stream EneMedia continue to mistranslate it as the very neutral “God is Great” as this also gives them the opportunity to say that their God allah is the same as your God which is patently and clearly insane. The Mohammedan God is an evil , self contradictory, illogical, violent,misogynistic, vengeful , antisemitic, Arab supremacist God (its all in the Koran) totally unlike the Christian and Jewish God.
I’ll not claim credit for the compilation. Suffice it to say Barry killed his spiritual Father, who’s next?
Kadaffi’s Libya:
1. There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free
for all its citizens.
2. There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are
state-owned and loans given
to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.
3. Home considered a human right in Libya –
Gaddafi vowed that his parents
would not get a house until everyone in Libya had a
home. Gaddafi’s father has
died while him, his wife and his mother are still living
in a tent.
4. All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinar (US$
50,000 ) by the government
to buy their first apartment so to help start up the
family.
5. Education and medical treatments are free in
Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25%
of Libyans are literate. Today the figure is 83%.
6. Should Libyans want to take up farming career,
they would receive farming
land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and
livestock to kick- start their farms
– all for free.
7. If Libyans cannot find the education or medical
facilities they need in Libya,
the government funds them to go abroad for it –
not only free but they get US
$2, 300/mth accommodation and car allowance.
8. In Libyan, if a Libyan buys a car, the government
subsidized 50% of the price.
9. The price of petrol in Libya is $0. 14 per liter.
10. Libya has no external debt and its reserves
amount to $150 billion – now
frozen globally.
11. If a Libyan is unable to get employment after
graduation the state would
pay the average salary of the profession as if he or
she is employed until
employment is found.
12. A portion of Libyan oil sale is, credited directly to
the bank accounts of all
Libyan citizens.
13. A mother who gave birth to a child receive US
$5 ,000
14. 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $ 0.15
15. 25% of Libyans have a university degree
16. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation
project, known as the Great
Man-Made River project, to make water readily
available throughout the desert
country.
But unfortunately ‘malf’ none of that counts when you are a Dictator and keep your Citizens imprisoned and kill thousands on your whim. Libyans were just birds in a gilded cage very pretty but still PRISONERS.
Didja ever see photos of Libya prior to and then after Gaddafi came to power?
For the record, here’s what the G-man did with the money:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/10/gaddafis_haul_from_40_years_in_power_200_billion.html
He amassed enough personal wealth that he could’ve vanished away from Libya and lived a very comfortable “retirement”. But I guess the question to the answer is, “Which do people carve more; Money or power?”
By that I mean, he could’ve walked away, been exiled, whatever and still have enough “walking around money” to live like a tin-pot dictator wherever he went, or wherever would have him. But his literal death-grip on power is what ultimately did him in, as it does to many (most) megalomaniac national dictators.
I’m sorry, malf, but even though that list is most intriguing, I doubt the citizens of Libya found themselves to be the beneficiaries of such largesse. I’d need to see where the numbers came from, who published them and what the original source was.
Uh…”which do people CRAVE more”. Not “carve”. Sorry.
The blame for Obama’s fascistic rise to power rests with the individuals who voted for him, yes, but the National Media, the Entertainment Industry, and the leftist academic elite played a critical role in the brainwashing of Obama’s enablers. This plus the fact that the McCain nomination was a fiasco that demoralized the GOP base and greatly dampened oppositional turnout. Let us not forget that the Tea-Party movement, together with a sufficiently mature alternative news infrastructure (Fox, conservative blogs, trans-Rush talk radio) are fairly recent developments. 2010 was a massive victory for conservative & traditional Americans. We proved that Big Brother could be taken on and beaten. And I cannot wait for 2012 to get here. Obama’s core is displaying itself in full color in this pathetic Occupy Wall Street “rebellion” — the mask has not just slipped, it has fallen off entirely. The rabid anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and communistic anti-Capitalism is right there for all to see; and the stupid, panicking Democrat leadership (including Obama) are coming before the cameras to announce that they actually sympathize with these half-wit hypocrites! It is really quite something to witness.
And don’t forget to include those who financed it all. Soros for one pumped millions into the campaign.
Occupy Wall Street is the Left wing Moonbats and Democrats at prayer. They are all there the Green NAZI luddites, the antisemitic moonbats and Mohammedans the Poofs and Lesbians the Moral Equivalence spout Multi Culturalists all of them in one big stinking heap.
“I am reminded of an especially pertinent observation by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:
The discovery of truth is prevented most effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, nor directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice [in this case, by the Western notion that all people want a secular, liberal democracy], which as a pseudo a priori stands in the path of truth and is then like a contrary wind driving a ship away from land, so that sail and rudder [reality and those who present it] labor in vain.”
I believe Will Rogers said essentially the same thing when he observed: ‘the problem with most people isn’t what they don’t know, its what they know that isn’t so.” Democracy is no magic potion that will cure all of a society’s ills once instituted. it only means the people make the choices about the rules that govern them rather than a dictator. There must be at the foundation of a successful democracy a set of principles which are more or less agreed upon by a majority of the people. In an Islamic society the choices made by “the people” are likely to be little different than those made by the dictator. It is ludicrous that westerners project western values on those who know nothing but Islam. There is no reason to have any optimism whatsoever about the future of Iraq, the “Arab Spring” in Egypt or Libya after Gadaffi.
Killing bin Laden accomplished nothing. Americans were concerned about giving him a proper Islamic funeral so as not to offend the enemy. What could be more pathetic? Must we play by the rules of the enemy? How is that a victory of any sort?
The world will be no better after the “Arab Spring” and the death of Gadaffi either because: ITS THE ISLAM STUPID! We may not be at war with Islam but Islam is at war with us, and they want to destroy Western Civilization and they openly tell us as much at every opportunity. But, sadly, the zeitgeist of the West is one of determined blindness to the facts and cultural suicide.
Western powers have always indulged in thrusting their opinion on other countries, from the beginning of the history. But other super powers like Russia and China never did that till now. Now it is the turn of Gaddafi to suffer a death for defying western power. It may be another leader of another country next time.
“But other super powers like Russia and China never did that till now.”
Tell it to the Tibetans, Vietmanese, Finns, Georgians, Poles, Turks, etc…
You are revealing your ignorance.
Forgive him, his understanding of history began when he woke-up this morning, and will do so again tomorrow and tomorrow . . .
“[O]ther super powers like Russia and China never did that till now.”
That sound you heard was a Danny Thomas “spit-take” on my end. Once I finish giggling, I’ve got some coffee spills to clean up.
What does this say about the immigration debate? Should people try to clean up their own mess? Mexico is a sewer, and I suggest those coming from there track it in here.
The key image from the Neocons is that evil cats oppress innocent mice, when the population connives with the leadership and is part and parcel with the problem. Every Iraqi complains of corruption, but really just want to get their collective hands in fat.
The solution will be something on the order of The Thirty Years’ War: it take a lot of blood to wash folly away.
A fantastic article. Thank you!
I had lost all of my hope in the American people ever more so some 4 years ago once they saw Christ the Savior in Obama!!! I knew it back then that American public have become mere “sheep” who continue to follow what is put in front of them without any knowledge of the scenes in the back or even their own very surroundings.
Failure and downfall of empires have always historically happened when the public decided to sleep and be ignorant.
It is sad and extremely disturbing!!!
No wonder Islam is on the rise!
While we as freedom supporters are being pushed to no end by the left and dumbo liberals of the world becoming weaker, the billion Moslems of the world are multiplying in thousands by the day with ever more so fervent energy and zest for domination!
Islam isn’t so much on the rise as merely taking advantage of Western feebleness.
Any primitive force can crowd through an open gate. I read of a boatload of “migrants” that approached Italy a while back. The police escorted them INTO Italy. The idea of patrolling just outside Libyan waters is apparently unthinkable.
Oriana Fallaci described walking past Africans who urinated in the beautiful public places of Italy. Per Jane Air’s comment about 9mms above, it’s apparently acceptable to require Italians to put up with the stench of urine but not acceptable to force migrants to turn around and travel three miles back to the N. African shore. There’s nothing vibrant or inevitable about the primitives in the boats.
“It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.”
Got that right, Czechs.
With respect to Obama, Mr. Ibrahim and the quote from a Czech newspaper have got it absolutely right. This is what puts the fear and the doubt in the belly about Obama being more than a one term president. He was picked by a majority of the electorate, an electorate that no doubt prides itself on their ability to make intelligent choices based on what? Obama’s background, associations, inexperience and total lack of the so called “gravitas” that was such a serious issue with regard to George W. Bush, the nominee but of no interest or import whatsoever when it came to Obama. He was “the One we’ve been waiting for.” The hopey, changy affirmative action guy who would transform America……….into what?
Is the 2012 electorate any wiser, smarter, more informed, more discerning? Or is what some of us see in the “Occupy” demonstrations more representative. To those of us who knew better, held our nose and voted for John the RINO McCain, Obama is the expected huge disaster, a liability whose ineptitude, intentional or otherwise, will have effects that will have a long lasting and possibly permanent negative impact on the character and future of America but he is the one chosen by the majority of the society that elected him.
And all those Republicans elected to end the gridlock, play nice with the media and “reach across the aisle” in the interest of bipartisanship are equally culpable for their inability to comprehend, adopt and articulate the conservative message. The Democrats have become masters at the game of projection, blame all of their failures on the Republicans. They’re not far off the mark.
Gaddafi Dead — So What? The short answer to “So What?” is, there is no up side in this for the U.S. First of all our, foreign relations have become far more difficult to manage. The message of lighten up or die, has become lighten up AND die. That doesn’t seem to present viable options. Second, he was a monster but he was predictable, upon seeing how easily cousin Saddam had his country taken away, he saw the light of reformation, of sorts. Does anyone recall what Carter got when he entered into regime change in Iran? The situation in Egypt seems less promising by the day. Third, the comparison between Libya and Syria is already being made. Assad is doing what Gadaffi said he would, yet words are all they get. Do not misunderstand, I DO NOT PROPOSE AN INTERVENTION!!! However, from the demonstrators point of view, where is the justice? Just three off the top of my head.
It’s okay to lob cruise missiles at him but apparently a 9mm to the head is a little too lacking in manners.
That’s choice. It reminds me of the great military cartoonist, Mr. Finley, IIRC. He had a great cartoon about The Artillery Officer with a caption something like, “The artillery brings elegance to what would otherwise be an vulgar brawl.”
There have not been any reports of gang banging as a victory celebration. But it is doubtful that the women of Sirte were spared. Thousand of the men were surely beheaded or beaten to death while the victors yelled god is great.
United Nations recognized Gaddafi as Libya’s Head of State for several decades. Gaddafi also served as the President of the African Union. Several foreign dignitaries including British Prime Minister Tony Blair (in 2004) and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (in 2008) visited Gaddafi. Gaddafi also had warm handshakes with President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the G8 summit in Italy in 2009. Hence the US-led NATO military campaign, which was camouflaged as a mission to protect innocent Libyans, to oust that UN recognised Libyan leader Gaddafi and kill him in cold blood.
US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy should not be held accountable for war crimes in Libya since they knowingly and willfully participated, in a joint enterprise in Libya, which turned out to be criminal and provided financial, material and logistical assistance to the anti-Gaddafi forces while being aware of the consequences of their action. They were directly responsible for the NATO air strikes that killed a thousands of innocent Libyans.
-Nalliah Thayabharan
As always wherever there is “Oil” there is the trio mastermind behind sacking the current leaders in favor of Islamic regimes. The trio consisting of first and foremost Britain, France and US as their puppet power their nanny state.
It happened in Iran in 1979, it happened in Libya and it will happen again wherever there is a “secular” system of government regardless of democratic or authoritarian. It is the wish and plan of the colonial powers to establish Islamic states in the region as wide as possible for taking total control of oil interest while tramping down on its people’s free will for a lawful, democratic secular states.
Just read the history and go back, cross the T’s and place the dots. It is all clear.
Thank you for articulating what I have long felt about the so-called Arab Spring, and about the election of President Obama. What indeed does it say about our electorate that they chose Messianism above experience? What does it say about our media, a pillar of our democracy, that it not only went for the ride, but rowed the boat?
For the first time in my life I empathized with the average German in 1933, who was not a Nazi, not bent on revenge, not an antisemite, but who watched what was happening around him with a sense of impending doom.
I feel as if I am watching a train wreck in slow motion.
What Hath Obama Wrought?
Okay, let’s give the man some credit, but not too much.
President Barack Hussein Obama is claiming his drawdown of America’s forces in Afghanistan enabled the capture and summary execution by Navy Seal Team Six of Osama bin Laden and he has announced the complete withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by year’s end.
The former is a stretch but plausible even if then-CIA Director Leon Panetta actually gave the order to get Osama while Obama went to bed. At least the president didn’t obstruct the operation.
The Iraq bug-out will constitute an accomplishment only if our departure doesn’t send a signal to neighboring Iran to fill the vacuum, a distinct possibility that terrifies many Iraqis and may make them long for the good, old days of Saddam Hussein and his sadistic sons.
When Obama concludes what he called the “necessary war” in Afghanistan and withdraws our troops from that sorry land, a comparable disaster could ensue.
Demonstrating his contempt for the nation that put him in power, Afghani President Hamid Karzai has already declared an alliance with another former U.S. friend, Pakistan, and when his government implodes under the weight of corruption, America will find itself back to square one in the region.
Yet another questionable plus in the Obama column is his non-interference with the drone that took out the terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki. Obama hasn’t boasted much about that action since al-Awlaki was an American citizen and killing him is widely interpreted as an unconstitutional abuse of power by our constitutional-scholar president.
None of those accomplishments-by-inaction will endear him to peaceniks in his Democrat Party nor to members of the committee that awarded Obama a Nobel Peace Prize but that’s a whole other story as is whether they will help him win re-election with the American economy mired in the doldrums.
After the plaudits for those questionable coups subside, the most immediate issue on Obama’s foreign policy table right now is, What has he wrought in the Mideast?
What comes to mind is the age-old aphorism that the devil you know sure beats the devil you don’t. America’s current president has rescued a number of devils at the same time he has sent some to Hell.
What hath Obama wrought?
In the Libyan non-war, the euphemestic “kinetic military action” Obama swore would last days not weeks and went on for seven months, our Tomahawk missiles and drones softened up the defenses of Col. Khadafi’s loyalists and put him on the run until rebel forces trapped him in a sewer drain and executed him.
Libya thus rid itself and the world of the mad dog, a man who had called Obama ”our son” and whose friendship was reciprocated by our president before he turned on his “dad.” In turn, Rev. Louis Farrakhan, who used to address Obama as “brother,” then asked his bro, “Who the hell do you think you are?”
More pertinent questions now would be, What have you done, who and what are taking Khadafi’s place, and what now? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5779.)
As always wherever there is “Oil” there is the trio mastermind behind sacking the current leaders in favor of Islamic regimes. The trio consisting of first and foremost Britain, France and US as their puppet state power, their nanny state.
It happened in Iran in 1979, it happened in Libya, it happened in Tunisia, Egypt (because Egypt even without Oil it is still huge and very influential in the region and Mubarak’s was used and was time for him to expire so that Egypt has better chance of becoming another Islamic state) and it will happen again wherever there is a “secular” system of government regardless of democratic or authoritarian. It is the wish and plan of the colonial powers to establish Islamic States in the region as wide as possible for taking total control of oil interest while tramping down on its people’s free will for a lawful, democratic secular states.
Hey why go far in the back? Just think about the most recent theft of 3 billion dollars stolen by the Ayatollahs goons from Iran’s federal bank! This money now saved in an European bank, most probably the Swiss bank or the famed British Barclay bank, or some other one. Does any bank in a broken bankrupt Europe wants to diss such huge load of money? I think not. Does any of our Western leaders want to piss the ayatollahs off? Not really.
As the trio powers planned the oust of Libyan, Egyptian and Tunisian regimes this past year and a half, they refrained from doing so in Syria and they kept mum as they have for the past year 32 years towards Iran’s continued terror plots and severe abuse of human rights. But why such complacency towards Syria and Iran? Of course because Iran is already an Islamic State and Syria is its bastard child. There lies the interest of Europe. Oil, money, trade in their broken economies. Free democratic systems in Iran is a death wish for Europe. Shah tried to raise the Oil price and Britain and France literally had heart attack over night, dead-bent on ousting Shah afterwards.
Basically the plot of Western governments is to establish Islamic States throughout the middle east and Africa, paying safe with terrorists by strengthening their internal security agencies and anti terrorist agencies, FBI in the US, federal courts, etc. This way they play it safe in this all game of power, greed and control, while keeping their poor bankrupt economies alive a little longer. Not to forget thousands of officials enriching their own pockets with petrol dollars day by day.
In fact politics is sick, corrupt and has never seen such level of petrified corruption, sleaze and lies as long as we may remember.
Just read the history and go back, cross the T’s and place the dots. It is all clear.
It is up to us as an individual citizen to question our leaders and hold them accountable for their corrupt actions and policies. But again there are not many of us. Our average citizen is extremely uninformed and in the dark ages.
I don’t see much hope in this sick world honestly.
Sorry!