International News: They Got Gaddafi

Well it hasn’t exactly been a banner year for terrorists or the violent dictator sect. With Osama being KO’d by the now infamous SEAL Team 6 and Gaddafi taking a gunshot to the head this past week it seems like the tide might be turning in favor of freedom. While the details surrounding Osama’s death were highly publicized and quickly disseminated there seems to be a lot of uncertainty surrounding Gaddafi’s death. He was arrested and taken alive only to be pronounced dead hours later with a gunshot to the head. Various Libyan rebels were shown on video taking credit for pulling the trigger, but there seems to be a darker side to what actually happened. The rumor mill is running at full speed and there seems to be some truth to the reports of Gaddafi being killed by one of his own supporters to avoid the persecution that was sure to follow at the hands of the international courts.

Various officials from the United States, United Kingdom, Egypt, and France commented on how appalled they were at the treatment of Gaddafi after his capture, but it seems like they are just saving face in the eyes of the international human rights camp. Did anyone really think Gaddafi was going to be arrested and held with due process like a common thief? We’re talking about a man who ruled and terrorized an entire country for nearly 50 years. Who gives a fuck about his “rights” after he was arrested? I know it’s a little disconcerting when you see the video of him being harassed and beaten after they found him, but when you read a little bit about his legacy of murdering and torturing his own people the sympathy quickly fades. I can’t think of anything that would’ve been too severe for this bastard. In fact, that gunshot to the head was probably too good for him. I would’ve been more supportive of a Saddam-style hanging and I’m sure a few million Libyans would agree.

Aside from the handling of Gaddafi, the New York city based Human Rights Watch has called for an investigation of what was apparently a mass execution of Gaddafi supporters in a hotel in Sirte. I’ll reserve judgment on the moral implications of this mass murder since no one actually knows who was killed in that hotel, but I’m sure that an investigation will be fruitless. The people of Libya are celebrating in the streets and waiting in line to mock Gaddafi at his grave. An investigation into who killed the supports of one of the most hated people in the world will probably not yield much information.

The standard for the treatment of criminals completely changes in the context of war, especially a civil war where an oppressed people have risen up against a corrupt government. There may have been some innocent people involved in this massacre, but could we really expect the group of rebels who breached the stronghold to see it that way? These men and women were fighting against the regime who had murdered their friends and families and oppressed them their entire lives. They may have been blinded by anger in the moment, but that anger was building for a lifetime. The supporters of Gaddafi knew the end was coming and had been asked to leave peacefully many times. By choosing to stay and fight with Gaddafi they sealed their fate and the people of Libya delivered it. I only wish that they could’ve sent in SEAL Team 7 so we could chalk up another victory to the badassery of the American military, but a dictator has fallen without sacrificing more American lives so tonight I’ll take a shot for the rebels that put one in that fucker’s head.

    1. FratHardinthePaint

      I’ll say the same thing I say to professors and slams: better late than never.

      13 years ago at 3:50 pm
  1. Davy Crockett

    Gaddafi was better than the Iran-style Islamist government that is poised to take over the country now. At least Libya was stable and (sort of) US friendly. The same thing happened with the Iranian Revolution. The US was better off when there was a semi-secular dictatorship than the new fascist Islamist government.

    13 years ago at 3:49 pm
    1. Davy Crockett

      More stable relations and easier access to energy companies in the region. They were also less hostile and less keen on “wiping Israel off the map.”

      13 years ago at 4:03 pm
    2. Broblesse Oblige

      Plus, not to be insufficiently chauvinist, women were a lot better off in Iran and Libya before these revolutions. Democracy does not equal freedom or success. I would rather have the most developed country in Africa with strong infrastructure, standard of living, peace, and tolerant policies on rights (by the way, Gaddafi didn’t just kill everyone who spoke against him or Jibril would be dead) without the right of illiterate Muslims to vote than have those same people vote and fuck everything up.

      13 years ago at 4:09 pm
    3. rooster cogburn

      yeah it will definitely be interesting to see how this shakes out and we do have a less than perfect track record with deposing dictators but scar from the lion king here had to go.

      13 years ago at 4:12 pm
    1. anon16

      Well technically Seal Team 6 doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just a name that constantly gets changed. I think most recently it was Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU and now I think it’s something else. I assume by the time we hear an official name for what used to be Seal Team 6, it’s already using a new name. There were originally a number of numbered Seal teams and 6 was just the large elite one that drew from members of the other teams.

      13 years ago at 4:11 pm
    2. Frat Force

      Actually, one of the stories behind the naming of SEAL Team Six was the when it was determined another SEAL Team was needed, there were only two teams at the time. The military decided to name them SEAL Team Six to make the Commies waste their time trying to figure out how SEAL Team Three, Four, and Five had slipped by them for so long.

      13 years ago at 4:58 pm
    3. TrueAmericanPatriot

      Frat Force you are truly dumb as hell stop talking out of your ass. SEAL Team One, Three, Five, and Seven are based out of Coronado, CA. SEAL Team Two is based out of Little Creek, VA and is the only team that has Arctic Warfare capabilities. Team Four is the only team that requires members to speak Spanish. Other teams in Little Creek include Teams Eight and Ten. All teams have specific sectors of the world they are responsible. DEVGRU (Dick Marcinko’s SEAL Team Six during the Cold War) is “SEAL Team Six” but in actual fact they do not exist on the Department of Defense budget. They are out of Dam Neck, VA. Team Six was not created because “they needed a new team”. That’s horseshit. Team Six was created for the Naval equivalent of the Army’s Operational Detachment- Delta or “Delta Force” as it is commonly known. DEVGRU specializes in counter-terrorism specifically but they were originally instituted as a highly adaptive force that could be given a mission and find a way to achieve that mission.

      13 years ago at 7:08 pm
    4. Frat Force

      While you’re obviously much more versed on the SEALs than anyone else here, I do have to say that I am at least partially correct. While it was not obligatorily decided that another SEAL team was needed, they did in fact name it Six because the other numbers where not used at that time. This was reported on several major networks after the Osama operation, and for the quick and lazy amongst us, can be pulled up with a quick wikipedia search. “Marcinko was the first commanding officer of this new unit, which he named SEAL Team Six. At the time there were only two United States Navy SEAL (SEa, Air and Land) teams; Marcinko purportedly named the unit Team Six in order to confuse Soviet intelligence as to the number of SEAL teams in existence.” I’m not saying that the Team numbers in existence today are only 1, 2, and 6; rather, that at the time it was a form of counterintelligence.

      So I claim partial credit on my previous post. TFTC to find better sources than wikipedia to cite on this site. And if I’m still wrong, Fuck it, I’ll gladly run a lap or three.

      13 years ago at 9:30 pm
    5. Made in 1865

      TrueAmerican, you know so much about the Navy SEALs. Why don’t you go buy yourself a cookie and shut the fuck up

      13 years ago at 12:48 pm
    6. alphaosince1897

      Yes, I’m female but here we go. My dad was a part of the original six, when at first it was created to confuse the terrorists about the other “missing” teams. Yes, now there are actual teams.
      Now, Gaddafi was suppose to be killed over twenty years ago by SEAL Team 6, but wasn’t because they were called off.

      13 years ago at 10:12 pm
    7. Ricky Monday

      ^You should have stopped at I am a female. Men are talking so why don’t you go back to the kitchen.

      13 years ago at 10:45 pm
  2. anon16

    It should also be pointed out that Gaddafi wasn’t just beaten up and shot. Dude got sodomized when they found him. Sodomy, NF.

    13 years ago at 4:12 pm
    1. UTSNU

      I hope that shitbag was sodomized with a fucking broom until his organs turn to mush. I have zero sympathy for murderous cunts like Gaddafi, and you shouldn’t either.

      13 years ago at 5:09 pm
  3. futureleader14

    I would like to see hot piece of TSM write a column like this – you know, about something that actually matters.

    13 years ago at 7:26 pm
  4. BlazersKhakisNattys

    There’s no such thing as a “sect” of violent dictators, it’s an insult to call the SEALs “infamous,” and courts don’t “persecute,” they prosecute.

    13 years ago at 8:36 am