Gaddafi : One Cold Night Over Lockerbie

As the guns close in on Gaddafi, there is a sense of vindication for years spent battling terrorism, Mr. Gaddafi was always situated at or near the top of the list, head of the class, numero uno.  Success battling terrorists is almost always, seemingly, rather obfuscated.  Yes, it's true that acts of terrorism tend to seem sparse, but when they occur, they are always quite traumatic and emotionally charged.

Witnessing the devastation of terrorism is difficult for all of us.  We are all witnesses to such harshness and heinous acts... it's called the evening news.  Knowing your own friends or your family members have suffered under the harsh fist of terrorism, that's a bit different.  My friends were among those who died aboard Pan AM Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.  I was going to change my flight plans to fly back with them.  But for a whim, my life would have ended on that fateful day along with my friends from Syracuse.

I've always watched Mr. Gaddafi with a great deal of interest, perhaps the word scorn comes to mind, for I know of the countless murders he has arranged.  The killing was something he happily funded and orchestrated in the name of terrorism; for the sake of terrorism itself.  He didn't have a cause of nationalism to hide behind.  His actions were the actions of a state sponsor of terrorism. 

Gaddafi had only a mask to wear in order to sustain his power and control over the wealth of the nation.  To the extent he hurt or killed Libyans, to the extent he held them back and kept them suppressed emotionally and economically, I don't think it was or could ever be measured with any degree of accuracy.  The extent of his killing in international environments, again, was poorly measured with little accounting of the mountains of misery Mr. Gaddafi has provided humanity across the globe.

Finally, as we stand on the verge of liberating Libya, I am relieved and hopeful the final blow to this cowardly regime shall be dealt with soon.  It is time to end the nightmare of Gaddafi.  But there's one thing I hope for, perhaps with foolish optimism.  I hope Gaddafi will not be killed.  It is my most ardent wish that this person who has brought forth so much indignation, suffering, and desperate pain should have to endure the remainder of his life in an existence opposite his heretofore opulent lifestyle. 

His life as a virtual absolute monarch... those days have terminated.  I detest the idea that he would somehow meet a sudden, quick, and painless death.  The notion that a round of ammunition might cease his physical thoughts and life without knowledge of violence or pain is unbearable.  I'd like for him to live, and under what conditions he should live, I dare say, should be determined at the pleasure of the Libyan people.  Yet I fear the story of a rogue bullet and the sudden liquidation of Gaddafi's life.

That they might forgive their master is unlikely, and that they would grant him a swift and dignified death is equally unlikely.  That they might deal Mr. Gaddafi a life fitting of his unique brand of despotism could, in fact, be well in line with the teachings of ancient ways... May he come to know that his legacy, like all things examined under the scrutiny of light, shall be laid bare by the unrelenting course of truth and exposed for precisely what it is.  

The overarching goal should be that Gaddafi does not die waving a machine gun in the faces of opposition soldiers, lest he dies with the thought that he was an honorable death, the way of the martyr.  For a man who built an empire of violence upon lies, deceit, and terror; no fate could be more horrific than to be denied martyrdom.

Consider the horror he might feel under the light of the truth.  Perhaps there will be justice for those who died when the Clipper Maid of the Seas was blown up one cold night over Lockerbie.  May change bring peace.