No Miranda Warning for Moammar Gadhafi but that’s Understandable
The end came to Moammar Gadhafi and regardless of who killed him, it was a brutal and violent demise.
The recriminations and accusations that the rebel forces now taking over Libya are on the same moral plane as the tyrant they overthrew are already implied by human rights groups who are demanding investigations into his death. I must admit that I felt queasy Thursday as I watched reports over the Internet seem to show a certain lawless treatment of the self-anointed “Brother Leader” in his final hours. The preferred approach by all reasonable people is a due process that includes a trying of alleged facts and application of just law that produces an appropriate punishment, in this case one would presume the gallows. Obviously that did not happen and Libya’s government, the National Transition Council, will be watched closely to see if Colonel Gadhafi’s treatment was just a one-off event or the same justice that will continue to be meted out, just as the Colonel’s regime did. I suspect the former.
A look at the man who ruled Libya ruthlessly for over 40 years will certainly put his unseemly demise into context.
To the outside world, including and especially the Arab world, he was a pariah. He exported terrorism and unrest not only to the western world (see 1986 Berlin disco bombing; Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988), but also to neighbors on the African continent.
The uprising that started only 8 months ago was fought relatively honorably by the rebels, as civil wars go. But such can not be said of the Gadhafi loyalists. Using a scorched earth policy as they retreated, which included summary executions of suspected rebels that included many innocent civilians, the good Colonel did not go out with a whimper. And his 40 year reign racked up an even far higher toll of victims. It was telling that the Arab League endorsed a no-fly zone over Libya in March, clearly challenging his regime.
In light of such, it is hardly surprising, though not necessarily morally justifiable, that those who had been oppressed or had friends or relatives killed by the Brother Leader, would not have had their Miranda card at the ready when they apprehended him. The passion of the moment, and 40 years, could well have taken hold.
This should be kept in mind as the fledgling government takes control and attempts to bring order from the chaos that the Brother Leader reaped on Libya.
And while on the subject of grizzly demises, perhaps the lemonade from the lemons could be the lesson learned by other would-be or existing dictators (Bashar Assad comes to mind): if you are a dictator and try to fight a rebellion, you could well wind up in a body bag when all is said and done.
As Mr. Assad digs in and decides that brutal force is the most appropriate reaction to the challenges of his regime, he may well look to 2 other fellow dictators who followed such route: Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi ( [Don't] R.I.P.). If even one life is saved by a dictator capitulating just 1 minute sooner than he would have otherwise, the seemingly gruesome treatment of Gadhafi and temporary vacation from due process can be rationalized, if not justified.
-I.M. Windee
