Muammar Gaddafi appears to be next in line in the cavalcade of sleaze balls facing public protests, and that’s a good thing. We can always use one less tyrant.
But my thoughts took me back to 1986 – I was still a good American at that time, and hated all the right people, Gaddafi among them. (He was “Quadaffi” back then.) There was a bombing in a disco in Germany where some Americans were killed, and the U.S. claimed that Libya was behind it. Reagan launched a huge bombing raid on that country. It felt good … sort of, you know, living vicariously through F-16’s raining bombs on unseen victims.
But it felt creepy too. Maybe I just didn’t blend. I was getting my news from all of the right places, and yet somehow found out that in that raid, along with the hundreds of other civilians, Gaddafi’s young daughter was killed. Memories fade, but as I recall, he witnessed her death. [They are saying on the news now that people around him say that he never recovered from watching that murder.)
They never did solve the disco bombing, never pinned it on Libya, by the way. Not that it matters. The Empire writes its own history.
My own children were very young at that time, and the thought of seeing one of them murdered was extremely unsettling. Maybe I just never was a good right winger. Within a few years I would be free of all of the ugliness, and no longer had to smooth things over in my mind. I could call murder … murder.
Then there was the whole Lockerbie thing. I have never been satisfied with the official explanation of that event. The man who was imprisoned for the crime, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, never confessed, and is widely thought to be a patsy. When Libya formally admitted to the deed, there was quid pro quo – the U.S. took Libya off the list of nations that “sponsor terrorism.” (As if we have a right to such a list! How many lists is the Empire on?)
It’s a horrible deed no matter who did it, of course. Just as shooting down that Iranian airliner was. But somehow we escape ever having to look in the mirror. We are always able to project our evil on others.
Anyway, as with Tunesia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Iran, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana, I hope for a peaceful outcome and to see some tyrants actually pay a price. Not death, not bombs, but a good long prison term, and time to reflect. Reagan belonged there, as have all his successors.
But it is too much to ask justice in life, and I know that. Just sayin’.
Piece of Mindful 
Within a few years I would be free of all of the ugliness
Moral superiority seems to be a big component of left/liberal/progressive thought. I don’t see it, with the body count and dysfunctional governance bigger on the Left. Seems more like a discussion gimmick.
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Define “left.”
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If you have no hope for the future, then you are “left”.
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So you don’t have an answer to that other than a broad and useless characterization, then? What specifically makes a “leftist”?
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I didn’t know how seriously to take your question. You were the one trafficking in the left-right dichotomy here:
“Maybe I just never was a good right winger. Within a few years I would be free of all of the ugliness, and no longer had to smooth things over in my mind. I could call murder … murder.”
I don’t know for sure what you believed before, but you seem like a thoroughly dedicated left-winger now, complete with shaming and signalling language, and the belief that institutions improve the man, institutions make the man, rather than man making the institutions, man bettering himself and his institutions by his own efforts.
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AP, Ritter author.
STOCKHOLM — Libya’s ex-justice minister on Wednesday was quoted as telling a Swedish newspaper that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people in 1988.
“I have proof that Gadhafi gave the order about Lockerbie,” Mustafa Abdel-Jalil was quoted as saying in an interview with Expressen, a Stockholm-based tabloid.
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Yeah – I read that. I’m still not convinced, and remember now … Abdel-Jalil is dead and you know nothing of the man who is saying those words, so be wary.
He offers evidence to support those who say that Libya did it, but it is second hand, the kind not admissiable in court, aka “hearsay.” It’s kept out of court for a reason.
For the record that though I am not convinced it was Gaddafi and Libya, but that does not mean that I know who did it or why, or that I would necessarily be surprised if it was Libya. It’s just not a strong case. I speculate that if I was an Iranian and the US had just murdered 270 of my fellow citizens for no reason, I might retaliate, and remember reading at the time that that is where the evidence was leading before the Libyans were blamed. Long time ago.
And why the hell do you care whether it was Iran or Libya? Does the blowback aspect bother you? Did you fall for the bullshit “accident” story about the Iranian jetliner?
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You give the Libyans and the Iranians the benefit of the doubt, but you are quick to call the Iranian jetliner incident murder. Looks like a little bias there.
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Lockerbie was done by either the Libyans or Iranians, and was an act of terrorism. What benefit of doubt do I give them other than to question official truth about who did it?
The Vincennes incident is classic state-sponsored terrorism. The Iran/Iraq war was turning towards Iran’s favor, and the US needed to step in. The moved one of its fleets into the Gulf, and directly threatened Iranian shipping. The shoot-down was a message delivered in classic fashion – “Look at us – we have power, and we will use it. We can act with impunity. Stand down!”
The Iranians stood down.
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You tend to soft pedal the terror aspects of a Libya and Iran.
I have a different take on the Iranian airliner. From my military pals 3 degrees removed I get that Iran was playing a cat and mouse game by hassling our ships with speedboats. Orders were akin to King Henry’s “who will take the initiative to rid us of these pests?” Rogers on the Vincennes took it upon himself to roar around the Gulf shooting speedboats, but the testosterone got too high and he locked onto the airliner. I imagine there were a few Iranian generals who said, “ooh, maybe the speedboat thing wasn’t a good idea.”
If you think it was a planned plot, the airliner was a poor target since it had many non-Iranians on board. But maybe that was part of the diabolical plot. Once you start down these Byzantine ruler plots, another layer of intrigue always explains things nicely.
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American warship illegally in Iranian waters, and you are blaming Iranian speedboats.
Good grief you’re a tool.
But let’s say that it was an accident. Let’s say that you have an Abrams Tank in your backyard, and are playing war one day, and some neighborhood kids are harassing you and you decide to get rid of the pests, and oops!~ Sorry! Accidentally blew up your parents’ house.
Imperial mindset firmly implanted in your brain. Checkmate.
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Looks like the neighborhood kids better be careful.
You approach these events with your personal sense of fairness, but I find you tend to make big, sweeping conclusions based on limited information, and you come down too hard on those whom you judge to be in the wrong.
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