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(Slate) Dumbass Killing Qaddafi was a mistake and could ultimately hurt Libya; he should have been tried by the Hague for war crimes. Or so says Christopher Hitchens   (slate.com) divider line 213
More: Dumbass, Hague, Christopher Hitchens, Gaddafi, Qaddafi, Muammar, Libyan, war crimes, NTC  
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1308 clicks; posted to Politics » on 22 Oct 2011 at 12:41 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



213 Comments   (+0 »)
   

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2011-10-22 08:47:23 AM
Right. Tell that to the mob who killed him.
 
2011-10-22 09:10:24 AM
Thanks, I said it first.

He's a martyr dead, not just a villain.
 
2011-10-22 09:13:31 AM
No, you want the old regime dead. If you have the leader and his cohorts around what invariably happens is a crushing series of revenge and retributions. With him dead and out of the way... The new Libyan regime can focus on rebuilding and on the Libyan people.

Trust me, killing these f*ckers is the easiest way to move forward especially for the people. Law and order is great for many things, this is not one of them.
 
2011-10-22 09:18:58 AM
Why do all these people insist on telling the Libyan people how to handle their domestic issues?
 
2011-10-22 09:20:40 AM
lohphat: Right. Tell that to the mob who killed him.

I thought it was Hillary...or Obama.
 
2011-10-22 09:23:08 AM
Dancin_In_Anson: lohphat: Right. Tell that to the mob who killed him.

I thought it was Hillary...or Obama.


Well, technically... NATO action would not have happened without U.S. authorization and involvement. So, yeah. They actually get the gold star for this one. Without NATO air power, the rebels would have been wiped out.
 
2011-10-22 09:51:08 AM
Sorry Chris, you are dead wrong. The libyan solution is a perfect example of the Mussolini rule - that states " Should you decide to become a murdering oppressive dictator, and rule your citizens with an iron fist, imprisoning, torturing and killing whomever you want without any pretense of justice, then when that population rises up against you they have the right to do to you anything they want- if you end up hanging by piano wire while they beat your corpse into a bloody pulp, you have only yourself to blame."
 
2011-10-22 10:02:09 AM
lohphat: Right. Tell that to the mob who killed him.

This Arab Spring will get out of hand. It will get out of hand and we'll be luck to live through it.

Actually, it bothers me that he was executed. Hell, even the way we went in to assassinate Osama bothers me. Not that they didn't deserve it. And that may have been the only way. I wish there were a way to effect change of this magnitude that encouraged more due process rather than less.

Time will tell whether it hurt or helped international relations in the Mid-East (et al). At least the killing of Ghaddafi was not done by us...even though it really looks like execution.
 
2011-10-22 10:12:49 AM
I bet anyone who had a loved one on that plane he helped bomb doesn't feel bad one bit .
 
2011-10-22 10:14:34 AM
basemetal: I bet anyone who had a loved one on that plane he helped bomb doesn't feel bad one bit .

I'm sure of that as well. I don't care that he's dead. I worry that the method might be a bad trend.
 
2011-10-22 10:21:23 AM
I agree that he should have been dragged to the Hague for all the world to see. Maybe give Ahmedinnerjacket, al-Assad, Ali Abdullah Saleh, & Omar al-Bashir something to think about. They watched Saddam* & bin Laden get killed and never stopped torturing & killing their own people. Why should Gaddaffi's death make any difference?

However, marching him in front of the world court so that all those rebels could compare what Ghaddaffi did with what their current leaders are doing? That'd be one hell of a surge.

*Yes, Saddam was put on "trial" but if anyone believes the outcome wasn't predetermined, they've been living under a rock.
 
2011-10-22 10:23:46 AM
I_C_Weener: I worry that the method might be a bad trend.

I bet it disturbed quite a few world leaders. Especially the despots.
 
2011-10-22 10:43:41 AM
No, it is their revolution. We and NATO gave them a hand but they are deciding their own future.
 
2011-10-22 11:01:00 AM
brigid_fitch: I agree that he should have been dragged to the Hague for all the world to see. Maybe give Ahmedinnerjacket, al-Assad, Ali Abdullah Saleh, & Omar al-Bashir something to think about. They watched Saddam* & bin Laden get killed and never stopped torturing & killing their own people. Why should Gaddaffi's death make any difference?

However, marching him in front of the world court so that all those rebels could compare what Ghaddaffi did with what their current leaders are doing? That'd be one hell of a surge.

*Yes, Saddam was put on "trial" but if anyone believes the outcome wasn't predetermined, they've been living under a rock.


This. If put on trial, Khadaffi would simply rant and rave that he is still the legal leader of Libya and he doesn't recognize the authority of those judging him and yadda yadda yadda he's at the end of a rope.

Revenge killing is never something that should be condoned in a civilized society, but putting him on trial would be nothing but an exercise in futility.
 
2011-10-22 11:11:55 AM
GAT_00: Thanks, I said it first.

He's a martyr dead, not just a villain.


A martyr to whom? Other members of his regime? Big whoop.
 
2011-10-22 11:13:34 AM
You become an evil dictator and you take your chances. You can die peacefully in your sleep like Mao, you can get the option of killing yourself like Hitler, or you can end up dead and rotting in a refrigerated cooler next to the ice cream.
 
2011-10-22 11:18:41 AM
If you want to live in a just and civilized society, well... you kind of need to keep up appearances that you respect and follow the rule of law no matter how badly you want to shoot the bastard in the head.
 
2011-10-22 11:18:45 AM
cameroncrazy1984: GAT_00: Thanks, I said it first.

He's a martyr dead, not just a villain.

A martyr to whom? Other members of his regime? Big whoop.


There will be people who miss him. Having him impotent and locked safely away in The Hague is something completely different from having a dead martyr to rally around. This is doubly true should the country have problems in the new government.
 
2011-10-22 11:25:59 AM
cameroncrazy1984: GAT_00: Thanks, I said it first.

He's a martyr dead, not just a villain.

A martyr to whom? Other members of his regime? Big whoop.


Hugo Chavez is already calling him a martyr.
 
2011-10-22 11:27:51 AM
what_now: You become an evil dictator and you take your chances. You can die peacefully in your sleep like Mao, you can get the option of killing yourself like Hitler, or you can end up dead and rotting in a refrigerated cooler next to the ice cream.

I want to be fired into the sun, like Mecha-Stalin.
 
2011-10-22 11:28:39 AM
muck4doo: cameroncrazy1984: GAT_00: Thanks, I said it first.

He's a martyr dead, not just a villain.

A martyr to whom? Other members of his regime? Big whoop.

Hugo Chavez is already calling him a martyr.


Big whoop.
 
2011-10-22 11:29:13 AM
lohphat: muck4doo: cameroncrazy1984: GAT_00: Thanks, I said it first.

He's a martyr dead, not just a villain.

A martyr to whom? Other members of his regime? Big whoop.

Hugo Chavez is already calling him a martyr.

Big whoop.


Just answering the question.
 
2011-10-22 11:31:31 AM
muck4doo: cameroncrazy1984: GAT_00: Thanks, I said it first.

He's a martyr dead, not just a villain.

A martyr to whom? Other members of his regime? Big whoop.

Hugo Chavez is already calling him a martyr.


Oh god, we should always worry about who Hugo Chavez likes.
 
2011-10-22 11:36:15 AM
GAT_00: There will be people who miss him. Having him impotent and locked safely away in The Hague is something completely different from having a dead martyr to rally around. This is doubly true should the country have problems in the new government.

to play devil's advocate a second- the problem with that is someone might decide he needs to make a triumphant return to the throne, like Napoleon, and find a way to make that happen.
 
2011-10-22 11:39:21 AM
SilentStrider: GAT_00: There will be people who miss him. Having him impotent and locked safely away in The Hague is something completely different from having a dead martyr to rally around. This is doubly true should the country have problems in the new government.

to play devil's advocate a second- the problem with that is someone might decide he needs to make a triumphant return to the throne, like Napoleon, and find a way to make that happen.


Not to mention we haven't really seen that with bin Laden, and Ghaddafi is a much less famous/important figure than Osama was.
 
2011-10-22 11:44:13 AM
vygramul: Why do all these people insist on telling the Libyan people how to handle their domestic issues?

The same people who declare France, U.S., other Western powers the winners of this war instead of the Libyan people who actually risked their lives?
 
2011-10-22 11:48:14 AM
A thought.

When a known monster, someone who has killed and ordered the killings of hundreds of thousands of people, is killed by his opponents, it's an assassination, or an unjust killing, or barbaric, and he should have been tried and imprisoned or then executed (but not by the Hague, because I'm pretty sure they don't do capital punishment anymore?).

When the poor, faceless, helpless, manipulated masses are killed in the same manner, it's an accepted tragedy at best and just the price of war at worst.

Those standards should be switched.
 
2011-10-22 11:54:06 AM
coco ebert: vygramul: Why do all these people insist on telling the Libyan people how to handle their domestic issues?

The same people who declare France, U.S., other Western powers the winners of this war instead of the Libyan people who actually risked their lives?



Something like that.
 
2011-10-22 12:09:33 PM
SilentStrider: GAT_00: There will be people who miss him. Having him impotent and locked safely away in The Hague is something completely different from having a dead martyr to rally around. This is doubly true should the country have problems in the new government.

to play devil's advocate a second- the problem with that is someone might decide he needs to make a triumphant return to the throne, like Napoleon, and find a way to make that happen.


Which is why I said keep him in the Hague. Much less likely to have him return victorious from there as opposed to a Libyan jail.
 
2011-10-22 12:23:00 PM
Newportbarguy





No, you want the old regime dead. If you have the leader and his cohorts around what invariably happens is a crushing series of revenge and retributions. With him dead and out of the way... The new Libyan regime can focus on rebuilding and on the Libyan people.

Trust me, killing these f*ckers is the easiest way to move forward especially for the people. Law and order is great for many things, this is not one of them


Exactly. No expensive and prolonged trial with a host of lawyers and a media circus swarming about. Plus, so long as the bugger was alive, his supporters would be working to free him, which would result in even more bodies piling up. He'd have been held up as a hero by some and more political BS would confuse the people.

Better to remove him permanently and quickly and get back to restoring the nation. Besides the guy had a long history of abuses and murder to his own folks and, as it seems most dictators do, went obviously crazy.

The wisest thing the US did when getting Osoma was to gun him down and then dump his body in the ocean. Even then, some dumbassed US commercial diver was going to sail out and attempt to locate and recover his body, ignoring the turmoil that would have created.

Hitler wisely suicided. The 'Duce' of Italy was caught by an angry mob, killed and his body was dragged through the streets to end up hanging from a pole. Saddam's blood thirsty sons were gunned down and he went through a remarkably short trial to be executed in the end.

We kill rabid animals and these people are no exception.
 
2011-10-22 12:37:36 PM
for what its worth, I agree - he SHOULD have been tried in a court of law. But the howling mob had other plans, and historically speaking the outcome was never really in doubt....

I also think Saddam should have been turned over to the Hague, as should Bin Laden. but again...that wasn't ever really going to happen either.
 
2011-10-22 12:45:31 PM
Nah, he's now just a worm farm that will quickly be forgotten. There's a new batch of assholes who are going to take over
 
2011-10-22 12:46:35 PM
coco ebert: vygramul: Why do all these people insist on telling the Libyan people how to handle their domestic issues?

The same people who declare France, U.S., other Western powers the winners of this war instead of the Libyan people who actually risked their lives?


Because we will get all their oil, just like in Iraq

Did we get any oil from any of these damn places?
 
2011-10-22 12:48:21 PM
Vodka Zombie: If you want to live in a just and civilized society, well... you kind of need to keep up appearances that you respect and follow the rule of law no matter how badly you want to shoot the bastard in the head.

I'm not convinced that he was executed. I watched those videos where he was still alive--he already had wounds in his chest area and in his head and was bleeding all over the place. Now it's "he was shot in the head"--well, it looked like he'd already been shot in the head, and unless it comes out that it was a point-blank shot into his temple, I think it's possible that he could have died of his wounds even if he wasn't shot again. They weren't exactly handling him gently.

It's still not clear exactly what happened, but he was definitely already seriously wounded in his head before they loaded him up in the truck.
 
2011-10-22 12:49:27 PM
NewportBarGuy: Dancin_In_Anson: lohphat: Right. Tell that to the mob who killed him.

I thought it was Hillary...or Obama.

Well, technically... NATO action would not have happened without U.S. authorization and involvement. So, yeah. They actually get the gold star for this one. Without NATO air power, the rebels would have been wiped out.


It's not too late for people to be wiped out. Remember, the US sold Qaddafi a metric buttload of weapons a few years ago, and we don't know where they are now.
 
2011-10-22 12:49:56 PM
cameroncrazy1984: muck4doo: cameroncrazy1984: GAT_00: Thanks, I said it first.

He's a martyr dead, not just a villain.

A martyr to whom? Other members of his regime? Big whoop.

Hugo Chavez is already calling him a martyr.

Oh god, we should always worry about who Hugo Chavez likes.


Chavez pisses me off, because when he speaks he will make a very salient and insightful point about American imperialism, like how we're perpetuating a war in Columbia. And in the very next sentence he'll accuse us of something so ludicrous and obviously false he destroys whatever credibility he has.
 
2011-10-22 12:49:59 PM
Conspiracy theory:

Qaddafi wasn't killed by the rebels, they managed to capture him alive, but he was subsequently assassinated by outside forces who feared that in a potential trial he might reveal some dirty dealing with western powers beyond those that are already known. A DGSE Agent planting a bomb or a Mossad sniper taking him out in the confusion of the firefight.

\ It's crazy and I don't have any evidence but I don't see that stopping anyone else from making shiat up.
 
2011-10-22 12:51:29 PM
All that may be true, but he really needed killin'.
 
2011-10-22 12:56:20 PM
I hate to agree with him but he's right. There will more killings in the coming weeks of members of Gaddafi's government and people close to him. It's not good news for those hoping for peace and democracy in Libya. Chances are the next guy will be another despot propped up by western powers.
 
2011-10-22 12:57:26 PM
Dumbass tag? For what, exactly? Hitchens is pretty much spot on here.
 
2011-10-22 12:58:32 PM
Sometimes, dead is better.
 
2011-10-22 12:59:36 PM
mcoctopus: I hate to agree with him but he's right. There will more killings in the coming weeks of members of Gaddafi's government and people close to him. It's not good news for those hoping for peace and democracy in Libya. Chances are the next guy will be another despot propped up by western powers.

yeah, but this is all very human like activity. for most of human history this is how societies got rid of dictators/bad leaders - the mob tears you to tiny bits, then they tear up your potential successors, and whomever takes over gets a very graphic reminder not to be a corrupt douchebag. we then repeat the cycle every 100 years or so.
 
2011-10-22 01:01:18 PM
In a perfect world, Chris.

Not this one.
 
2011-10-22 01:02:33 PM
keep in mind I don't agree with Qaddafi getting a beat down from a howling mob out for his blood...i'm just saying that we shouldn't act all surprised that it happened. they're gonna be a bit stabby in that neighborhood for a while, and they're gonna take it out on anyone from the old regime that they can find.

barbaric as that is, its all very human.
 
2011-10-22 01:03:02 PM
Just another racist coming to steal Obama's thunder.
 
2011-10-22 01:04:32 PM
Biological Ali: Dumbass tag? For what, exactly? Hitchens is pretty much spot on here.

If he wee living in a hermetically seaed sterile judicially pure universe. How about accepting reality that he was capured by hostile forces under poor chain of command control. He did not walk into the Swiss embassy and surrender...THEN Mr. Hitches would have a viable opinion based upon reality.
 
2011-10-22 01:05:07 PM
Farking autocorrect + insomnia.
 
2011-10-22 01:05:39 PM
Bloody William: A thought.

When a known monster, someone who has killed and ordered the killings of hundreds of thousands of people, is killed by his opponents, it's an assassination, or an unjust killing, or barbaric, and he should have been tried and imprisoned or then executed (but not by the Hague, because I'm pretty sure they don't do capital punishment anymore?).

When the poor, faceless, helpless, manipulated masses are killed in the same manner, it's an accepted tragedy at best and just the price of war at worst.

Those standards should be switched.



i3.ytimg.com

"You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old dictator will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
 
2011-10-22 01:07:52 PM
winterwhile: vygramul: Why do all these people insist on telling the Libyan people how to handle their domestic issues?

yea, a USA drone... makes your point..... worthless????????



A drone killed him?
 
2011-10-22 01:13:22 PM
Weaver95: mcoctopus: I hate to agree with him but he's right. There will more killings in the coming weeks of members of Gaddafi's government and people close to him. It's not good news for those hoping for peace and democracy in Libya. Chances are the next guy will be another despot propped up by western powers.

yeah, but this is all very human like activity. for most of human history this is how societies got rid of dictators/bad leaders - the mob tears you to tiny bits, then they tear up your potential successors, and whomever takes over gets a very graphic reminder not to be a corrupt douchebag. we then repeat the cycle every 100 years or so.


Then apparently, for whatever reason, mob justice is not a very good deterrent judging by how many dictators/bad leaders we've had.
 
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