Image via WikipediaMuammar Gaddafi has been running Libya since 1969, sometimes into the ground. Over 42 years, he has antagonized the rest of the world with his actions, while keeping a tight lid on the movements of his fellow citizens.Now Gaddafi is in the battle of his life, fighting to retain his power as opposition forces move in on the capital of Tripoli. He has vowed to stand and fight as onetime allies of his desert him.
Libya has become the latest Middle East country whose people finally had had enough of a decades-old dictator, yet do not have a clue as to what comes next.
Granted, Gaddafi has always been the epitome of the tinhorn dictator. Lately, though, he's been making rambling speeches from inside bombed out buildings (courtesy of U.S. airstrikes during the Reagan era), assuring everyone that everything was under control when it really wasn't.
Now that most Americans who wanted to leave Libya have been evacuated (with the exception of a few hardy journalists), the United States is putting out the word that they're ready to help get rid of Gaddafi if the people there so desire. Besides freezing financial assets, no such request has been made so far.
In a classic case of "be careful what you wish for", those who are cheering the overthrow of oil-rich Middle Eastern governments will soon be paying for it. Price hikes in gasoline and food due to the unrest are threatening an already-fragile economy.
Whatever happens in Libya will be interesting to watch. Because Gaddafi has dominated the political landscape in that country for so long, crushing any kind of formal opposition, the people there will have to start from scratch. Just like the people in Tunisia, Egypt and who knows where else. Throwing off the chains of dictatorship is one thing. Forming a new nation out of the ashes is quite another.
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