17. Libya’s Weird Dictator
Muammar al Qaddafi (1942 – 2011) was the self-declared “Brotherly Leader and Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamihirya”. As a young army colonel, he overthrew the Libyan monarchy in a 1969 military coup. He then became the country’s brutal dictator until his overthrow and death in a popular uprising in 2011. Called the “the mad dog of the Middle East” by US President Ronald Reagan, just before sending jets to bomb him, Qaddafi’s 42-year reign was marked by dramatic twists and turns. He morphed from socialism to Islamic fundamentalism. Once a key sponsor of terrorism, he became an avid cooperator in the Global War on Terror. He started off as an Arab nationalist, only to eventually revile Arabs and turn to African nationalism instead.
Qaddafi saw himself as a messiah. He modeled himself on Chairman Mao, and published The Little Green Book, which contained a political philosophy labeled The Third International Theory. A cockamamie mix of direct democracy, Arab and African nationalism, and Islamic socialism, it was intended as an alternative to capitalism and communism. Qaddafi’s book became required reading for Libyans, and it formed the theoretical basis of the country’s government. In reality, Libya was a kleptocratic dictatorship, governed on the basis of nepotism to enrich Qaddafi’s family and his tribe. It had a grossly mismanaged economy that survived only because of abundant oil and gas.
