From the US to al-Qaeda, the unanimous loathing for Muammar Qaddafi outweighs the world’s feelings for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein when he was ousted eight years ago in a US-led invasion.
“Qaddafi is incomprehensible and illogical, whereas Saddam Hussein was perhaps more cruel,” said Ihsan al-Shamari, a university professor in Baghdad.
“Saddam’s supporters in the Arab world considered him more rational and the context was different because Saddam portrayed himself as a hero of the Arab world” against the US and Iran, he said.
Warning: Smoking can damage your health
Photo: Reuters
In fact, never in recent years has a state leader been so widely detested.
For once, the US, al-Qaeda and Iran, as well as the UN and other Western countries, find themselves on the same side in their abhorrence for the Libyan strongman.
When the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 on Thursday authorizing a no-fly zone and other measures to stop Qaddafi harming civilians in suppressing a revolt, China and Russia abstained instead of using their veto power, despite their misgivings.
As a result, a coalition led by the US, France and Britain launched military operations against Qaddafi on Saturday, reinforced by Arab League approval of a no-fly zone. When exactly eight years earlier US and British troops invaded Iraq to topple Saddam, who had been in power since 1979, they did so without a UN mandate. That was because of a looming threat of a veto by France.
“We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people that there will be no mercy,” US President Barack Obama said on Saturday to justify military action.
Perhaps few things can be odder than the US finding itself on the same side of the fence as al-Qaeda in their opposition to Qaddafi.
On March 13, Abu Yahya al-Libi, a Libyan considered one of the main theorists of al-Qaeda, called on his countrymen to continue their revolt against Qaddafi “without hesitation or fear.”
The animosity between Qaddafi and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden dates back to 1996, when the militant group tried to assassinate the Libyan leader near his home city of Sirte.
Neither is there any love lost between Qaddafi and Iran. Tehran has supported the “legitimate demands” of the rebels against Qaddafi’s regime, though Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Sunday his country “doubts” the intentions of the countries taking part in air attacks on Libya.
Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said that although the Iraqi and Libyan dictators had both slaughtered their own people, they were perceived differently in the Arab world.
“Saddam had a lot of support in the region. Even though the Arabs did not savor that he massacred his people, he was considered a main Arab leader in a main Arab country, and was powerful,” he said.
In 1991, Saddam launched a crackdown against a Kurdish uprising in the north and a Shiite revolt in the south, leaving thousands dead. The US, Britain and France decided to establish no-fly zones in the north and south, though without UN authorization.
“Qaddafi has been seen for some time as an oddball, a madman. There are no Qaddafi supporters in the Arab world,” Salem said. “When he began killing his own people, it was not hard to say: ‘Someone has to stop him.’”
In 2003, Iran and the Arab League — with the exception of Kuwait — condemned the Iraq invasion.
The main difference between 2003 and this year is the immediate threat to Libyan civilians, said Ali al-Saffar, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit in London.
“There was no compelling reason to invade Iraq,” he said. “If Saddam had shelled Iraqi villages like Qaddafi has done, the situation would have been different.”
The opposition to Qaddafi is stronger among Shiites than Sunni Muslims. Shiites accuse Qaddafi of being behind the disappearance of Lebanese Shiite leader Musa al-Sadr, who vanished during a 1978 visit to Libya.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was