It’s undeniably the final moments in Tripoli for the regime of Colonel Gaddafi. But even as chaos and madness reigned supreme in the streets of the capital city, Colonel Gaddafi was speech making.
It’s a trait of some of the most despotic of rulers that the speech, presented via television or radio, is organised to settle their nations. It’s clear that his speech on 21st August did no such thing. Far from settling his nation it probably unsettled them even more…leaving a host of unanswered questions. Questions such as, “Have you already left?” And that’s why his speech contained such lines as:
These are infidels, they kill you in Ramadam. It’s 1:40 am now.
Not really a tour de force, but a comical tour de force. For example we were treated to:
The donkeys of the Gulf have given them weapons to bomb our airconditioners.
A marvellous line that deserves to be preserved. But there was also some sense amid the rant as he explored the colonial past that is Libya’s, the Italian oppression and the British occupation…their revolution and their oil discoveries. Too late.
What are we, Palestinians? Somalis!
There remain some deep reservations about both the clear will of NATO forces to dislodge Colonel Gaddafi and the tangled mess that is the revolutionary Council. But there will be few tears marking the loss to the world of this particular speech-making despot.
