Reuters is reporting that Muammar Gaddafi has been killed in a firefight with rebel forces early today, Thursday, October 20, 2011.
After several months of pitched battle with support from a coalition of NATO forces, including the United States, the Arab Spring has claimed another victory as another dictator has been deposed. The United States provided air power but no ground troops.
from Reuters:
Details of the death near Sirte of the fallen strongman were hazy but it was announced by several officials of the National Transitional Council (NTC) and backed up by a photograph of a bloodied face ringed by familiar, Gaddafi-style curly hair.
“He was killed in an attack by the fighters. There is footage of that,” the NTC’s information minister, Mahmoud Shammam, told Reuters.
While President Obama will most likely give full credit for the liberation to those who fought and died to free their own country (there have been zero American causalities), it will nevertheless be seen as a victory for his foreign policy. It cost the United States thousands of American soldiers lives and hundreds of billions of dollars to capture Sadaam Hussein and we’re still trying to get out of Iraq. Obama allowed the Libyans to free themselves and any government they build will come from within, not be imposed from without.
In addition to all of this, it robs radical Muslims of any useful propaganda. The United States is not “occupying” or “invading” Libya, all we did was give cover to other Muslims that they might overthrow a brutal dictator. Hardly the stuff of recruitment material.
We have empirical evidence that, indeed, the Bush Doctrine is officially a failure. Watch for the outcry of indignation from the Right.
Read more about Gaddafi’s death here
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Sorry, the people did not benefit under Gaddafi. Since the revolution began in Libya, I’ve been following it closely via the Libyan Youth Movement on Facebook. It didn’t seem to me as if the Libyan people benefited under Gaddafi when they were happy to get their hands on something as simple as candy bars after some of the oil workers left the country for safety reasons. There was great income inequality in Libya under Gaddafi. This, and the oppression the Libyan people experienced under Gaddafi’s rule left them little/no choice than to try ousting him and setting up a government that would be more subject to the will of the people. President Obama’s decision to avoid a military intervention with boots on the ground allowed the Libyan people to fight for their own freedom, and they won it outright, just as our forefathers did in the Revolutionary War. I am so happy for them. They get to determine their own way forward without a foreign nation making decisions for them. This, imho, would not have been a good thing.
@majii You are sorely mistaken. Gaddafi supported the Lybians to the fullest. I wouldn’t rely too heavily on Mainstream media outlets as they’re biast and promote a one sided agenda. Here’s just a few of the many things that Gaddafi helped His people with while in power. 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.
Like the revolution wasn’t a staged response to the failings of economic hitmen, as is true of the whole of the “Arab Spring”. Disgusting. Believe what you will. And where are the contracts going to go.. and the resources?? And will the people benefit? of course not. They probably did under Gaddafi, which is why he had to go.
Ah, yes. The Libyans were a happy content and peaceful nation under Gaddafi. Gotcha.