Gaddafi: the madness of the tyrants.

After six months of fighting and over 40 years ruling Libya, it appears that the end is nigh for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. ‘The mad dog of Middle East’ as President Reagan once called him is defying the calls from international leaders and has called for his loyalists to prepare for martyrdom as he takes once last stand against the approaching rebels. The wall-to-wall coverage on television has been fascinating as the press corps push further into the once Gaddafi stronghold, evidence of possible war crimes as followers prepare for the reckoning. Yet Gaddafi, as eccentric as he may appear on Libyan state television and defiant in his final hours, knows that surrender is not an option and giving up is the action of a weak man.

Gaddafi is part of the old breed of tyrant. He rules with an iron fist but understands the theatre surrounding personality politics. He declared himself a colonel because he did not see himself as the leader of the Libyan revolution; he was a cog in freeing the people from the monarchy. Like Nasser of Egypt or Amin of Uganda he is a representation of the people; outspoken, defiant with an ability to accrue support at home under international pressure. Gaddafi is known for his flirtation with state sponsored terrorism, arming the IRA, bombing a German nightclub full of American servicemen and infamously the Pan AM flight that blew up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Gaddafi has been a pariah and a darling of the West in his 40 years of rule. In 2009, he bizarrely used the UN as a floor to criticise the UN Security Council and Israel before moving onto trivial matters such as swine flu and the US invasion of Grenada in 1986. Yet this perceived ‘madness’ makes him more dangerous.

If Gaddafi was mad then how did it explain his ability to seize then hold onto power for more than 40 years? To describe him as ‘mad’ (despite the TV footage) is lazy and is an easy way to submit to dictator stereotypes. Gadaffi, like Hitler or Reagan, was an actor. The issue is that like Amin or Mobuto, is when the reality and the theatre become blurred. People in the West often question why these people last so long and why there aren’t more coups; it is the mix of the personality backed by a repugnant secret police that punishes any form of criticism. Under Saddam Hussein, prisoners had their feet tortured with a cane (the feet contain hundreds of nerve endings) and Chile’s General Pinochet used to have dissidents dropped from helicopters into the Pacific Ocean whilst tied up. Madness is used because it politicians are known for risk taking and their obsession, think Richard Nixon or Churchill. It is the unpredictability and mystique of the man that makes the next moves impossible to call. People live in fear.

Gaddafi will be fully aware of the plight of his former neighbour, Egypt’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak and appearances by fallen leaders in The Hague. Or the indignant end of Saddam. Gaddafi will ensure that he does not suffer a similar a feat.