Someone didn’t learn.

In the wake of Saddam’s execution, almost five years back, I wrote:

However history judges either aspect of the execution, I hope for at least one small benefit: that the next would-be tin-pot dictator sees this grainy, graphic, grotesque reminder of what could happen when his people get hold of him, and chooses a more benevolent path.
–Me, _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ , January 2, 2007

Gruesome footage of Gaddafi’s final moments were posted online (please note that the link leads to a violent video intended only for a mature audience). Hard to believe that of those Beirut conspirators, only Fidel and Gorby remain. The boogeymen of the 1980s are dropping like flies.

I worry that the Libyan and Egyptian revolutions are going to go the way the Iranian one did in 1979. Hopefully events will assuage my concerns.

4 thoughts on “Someone didn’t learn.”

  1. That link is too gruesome for any audiences, you should have put a password on it. What if one of your past, present, or future students sees that???

    Like

  2. He clearly marked that it’s gruesome. It’s a video which encompasses the rage and spirit of the Arab Spring, and you can find it on any major media website. He also teaches high-school students, not children.

    VDV – I thought the same thing! It’s interesting how they don’t seem to learn. Ben-Ali ran away, Mubarak is in prison, and Qaddafi is dead. The others only need to pick their poison, I think.

    I’m currently taking Politics of the Middle East. My Professor is tentatively doing diplomatic work for the state department, though he refuses to work for them full-time. He misses class every few weeks to fly over and consult on the peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel. I asked him the other day if he thought the revolutions would follow the footsteps of Iran, and got a tongue-lashing, to say the least. He felt very passionately that they would not, stating an impossibly large list of factors to regurgitate at the moment, but made a very convincing argument that the factors which led to the Iranian revolution and subsequent events were so unique that it would be possible to recreate the same outcome in a different state. Hopefully he’s correct.

    Like

  3. He clearly marked that it’s gruesome. It’s a video which encompasses the rage and spirit of the Arab Spring, and you can find it on any major media website. He also teaches high-school students, not children.

    VDV – I thought the same thing! It’s interesting how they don’t seem to learn. Ben-Ali ran away, Mubarak is in prison, and Qaddafi is dead. The others only need to pick their poison, I think.

    I’m currently taking Politics of the Middle East. My Professor is tentatively doing diplomatic work for the state department, though he refuses to work for them full-time. He misses class every few weeks to fly over and consult on the peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel. I asked him the other day if he thought the revolutions would follow the footsteps of Iran, and got a tongue-lashing, to say the least. He felt very passionately that they would not, stating an impossibly large list of factors to regurgitate at the moment, but made a very convincing argument that the factors which led to the Iranian revolution and subsequent events were so unique that it would be impossible* to recreate the same outcome in a different state. Hopefully he’s correct.

    ***corrected from possible to impossible

    Like

Comments are closed.