What will be the last view of Gaddafi of this world?
which way up?
which way down?
what will be our last view of him?
the anti-colonial guerilla fighter hero he associated with Omar al Mukhtar – Lion of the Desert – hung in 1931 by the Italian fascist colonial regime under Benito Mussolini
(Gaddafi wore the last photograph of Mukhtar alive just before his execution as a badge on his military uniform when visiting Berlusconi in Italy in 2009)
or
the ruthless dictator Benito Mussolini, as captured by Italian Partisans in 1945, when he tried to flee to Switzerland and executed on the spot, hung by his feet
—
the flag of his copy cat green revolution waved four decades
the regime he helped create repressed as many people as it did bind, to its peculiar form of common wealth
despised and embraced at the same time, by other leaders from other countries
who drew their plans for his removal while celebrating their meetings with him
those from his own camp, who now leave him to face up to his last days
will trample on his face to hide their own past
will his court be in the streets or in The Hague?
there will be no singular view of Gaddafi
as with all dictators both his face
and the way we see it
are split.
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see also “The disembodied Leviathan of Libya” on this blog.
the limping messenger 