Qaddafi's Last Stand?

Usually after a brief attempt to quell an uprising, most dictators will recognize reality and quit. Qaddafi however isn't your "normal" dictator.

Interesting – and appalling – is Muammar Gaddafi’s fight to survive.

Ever since World War II (and perhaps before that), when revolutions erupt, usually the dictator in charge recognizes reality and after a brief attempt to quell the uprising, he quits. Or is slaughtered. Or runs to a safe country – usually one where he has stashed money looted from his country.

Gaddafi isn’t like “normal” dictators.

It seems he ain’t going to go quietly.

In fact, he’s fighting back with all the zeal and fervor of a medieval tyrant. He seems genuinely outraged that Libyans are rebelling against his proclaimed “Islamic socialism” and has no compunction against slaughtering his own people in order to stay in control.

While Libyan armed forces reportedly defect, or switch sides as the protests expand, Gaddafi’s 3,000 paramilitary “Revolutionary Guards,” augmented by his so-called Pan-African Brigade of some 3,000 mercenaries from places like Chad, Niger, Sudan protect his bastion in Tripoli.

Gaddafi’s seven sons supposedly command “special” brigades that are better trained and more loyal than the small regular army.

“Revolutionary committees” kill those deemed disloyal to Gaddafi

Usually in popular uprisings, police and the army use batons and rubber bullets before resorting to gunfire. Not in Libya. Not Gaddafi. Tanks, rockets, even artillery and air strikes are used to kill and deter.

This, too, is a tactic borrowed from the Middle Ages: Kill enough demonstrators and protestors, and a revolution can be quelled or subdued, at least for the moment.

It was a common practice in Russia, but times and methods changed. Significantly, when the Soviet Union collapsed, it was with a whimper -- not with the overt brutality the regime was noted for when Stalin thrived.

Even South Africa, where bloody resistance and retribution was anticipated and widely predicted when apartheid was finally dismantled and blacks took over from whites, emerged relatively peacefully. Thanks largely to Nelson Mandela’s forgiving nature, but still somewhat miraculously.

Tyrants like Idi Amin, “Emperor” Bokassa and Mobutu flee when the Doomsday clock ticks to midnight. Others, like Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu and Iraq’s King Faisal don’t get the chance to flee, and are murdered by the mob.

Rare is Muammar Gaddafi who does a Custer’s Last Stand and fights “to the last bullet,” (presuming he lives up to his vow to prevail or perish).

Libya’s Interior Minister and its Justice Minister have jumped ship over the shooting of civilians, and Libyan pilots have flown to Malta rather than bomb their own people.

U.S. President Barack Obama has been caught flat-footed by events in the Middle East, including rebellion in Libya. Aren’t the State Department and CIA supposed to keep the White House briefed on what’s going on in other countries? Not reassuring in the Middle East.

There’s even a suggestion that U.S. warplanes might interfere if the Libyan air force bombs protestors.

Over the centuries the world has witnessed all sorts of crises, coups, revolutions. But not in recent decades has it witnessed anything quite like the death-struggle being waged by Gaddafi to save his regime.

Not even North Korea’s Kim Jong Il would likely try to hold on as Gaddafi is trying to. Although Kim is less colorful than Gaddafi, he may be even nuttier, and has a more ruthless hold on his country than Gaddafi had on his.

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