Gadaffi, Martyrdom and the Wasted Innocent Lives Of Libyans

It was just yesterday that a friend wrote: "When some people add two
to two, they get strange answers." And immediately after that I read
that someone called Gadaffi a martyr. For me, connecting the two
statements was natural.

Gadaffi, in case they have quickly forgotten, took many innocent lives
both indirectly and directly. Of course, we may not be able to convict
him of cold blood murder, but do you know how many Libyan lives that
would have been saved if he left quietly after holding on to power for
a record 42 years? Many innocent lives would have been saved,
including those of my black brothers who are now been hounded for
being mercenaries.

If martyrdom is now reserved for suicide bombers, masterminds of
terrorism, blood-thirsty tyrants, then history needs to be re-written:
Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Augusto Pinochet, Joseph Stalin, Idi Amin,
King Bokassa, Mobutu Sese Seko, and the facilitators of the Apartheid
government in South Africa deserve episcopal sainthood.

In a nutshell, my question is, when the blood-thirsty, power-drunk
tyrant is a martyr, what do his victims become? Or martyrdom now
proclaimed solely on the high and mighty? If Gadaffi is a martyr, what
then is that Tunisian grocery seller whose heroic self immolation
ignited the Arab awakening.

Let's be careful lest we mistake the villain for the victim. For
Gadaffi, I can only say: "Rest in peace, if you can." Because when I
think of his meeting Libyans who were killed because of him, over
there in death's land, I can only guess that he will lack one thing -
peace.

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