A Special Kind of Crazy

Qadaffi has lost most of the country, the military and diplomatic corps, and fallen into an even more deranged and deluded state.

gaddafi VtPcF 19672

There's a corrupt tyrant and then there's Qadaffi. Ben Ali and Mubarak were both ruthless dictators and stubborn in the face of a revolution, but there were never insane. Both men were calculating and recognized when they had been defeated. And both men have been brutal but stable leaders who built nations open to the world and based on national institutions, including professional armies.

Qadaffi was an international pariah until recently whose nation had remained deeply backward and closed off, his rule has been erratic and a national offense considering the oil men squandered to serve the delusional overseas adventures of a self-styled revolutionary, and he has prohibited the building of national institutions, including sub-dividing the armed forces, in order to prohibit any opposition from forming.

So the mentality between tyrants varies differently. Ben Ali and Mubarak were not willingly to use force that would led to sanctions against their nations and they did not want to rule over a bloodbath which would devastate the country. And the military is cohesive and professional in both cases to force a peaceful exit.

But Qadaffi has no intention of such a fate. He does not fear sanctions or a bloodbath, but has ordered fighter jet and navy ships to bomb his people and imported mercenaries.

And he would likely sooner die a martyr by his own hand than be forced into exile.

Qadaffi is a special kind of crazy who lacks the reason to understand an end game and to leave for the sake of the nation, instead he believes he is the nation in toto and will not leave without more blood no matter the national consequences. And he may not leave alive.

The end is near for this grotesque tyrant, and Qadaffi's last exhibition will certainly win him a place in history as among the most insane and comical leaders. A buffoon till the end.