The Spectator

Leader: Gaddafi’s revenge

Not even a month ago, it looked as though Colonel Gaddafi was going the way of Mubarak and Ben Ali — a bloodier process, certainly, but a seemingly irreversible one.

issue 12 March 2011

Not even a month ago, it looked as though Colonel Gaddafi was going the way of Mubarak and Ben Ali — a bloodier process, certainly, but a seemingly irreversible one.

Gaddafi’s revenge

Not even a month ago, it looked as though Colonel Gaddafi was going the way of Mubarak and Ben Ali — a bloodier process, certainly, but a seemingly irreversible one. His generals mutinied, and pilots sent to bomb Libyan rebels flew to Malta. His ambassadors resigned. There was talk of imposing a no-fly zone, to help the Libyan rebels in the same way the Kurds were assisted in 1991. But then Gaddafi realised that the only opposition he faced from the outside world was verbal. Now, steadily, he is taking back Libya.

The unthinkable seems to be happening. It now looks possible that Gaddafi’s four decades of tyranny are not over.

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