I received the following commentary by Col. Mu'ummar Qaddafi, published in a Libyan newspaper, from a friend in Libya. I translated it, and offer it without comment, other than at least it's his side of the story...
In the
name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful...
For 40 years, or was it
longer, I can't remember, I did all I could to give people houses, hospitals,
schools, and when they were hungry, I gave them food. I even made Benghazi into
farmland from the desert. I stood up to attacks from that cowboy Reagan. When he
killed my adopted orphaned daughter, he was trying to kill me; instead he killed
that poor innocent child.
I helped
my brothers and sisters from Africa with money for the African Union; I did all
I could to help people understand the concept of real democracy, where people's
committees ran our country. But that was never enough, as some told me, even
people who had 10-room homes, new suits and furniture, were never satisfied. As
selfish as they were they wanted more, and they told Americans and other
visitors they needed "democracy" and "freedom," never realizing it was a
cut-throat system, where the biggest dog eats the rest.
But they were enchanted
with those words, never realizing that in America, there was no free medicine,
no free hospitals, no free housing, no free education and no free food, except
when people had to beg or go to long lines to get soup.
No, no matter what I
did, it was never enough for some, but for others, they knew I was the son of
Gamal Abdel Nasser, the only true Arab and Muslim leader we've had since
Salah'a'Deen, when he claimed the Suez Canal for his people, as I claimed Libya,
for my people. It was his footsteps I tried to follow, to keep my people free
from colonial domination -- from thieves who would steal from us...
Now,
I am under attack by the biggest force in military history. My little African
son, Obama, wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our country, to take
away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and
replace it with American style thievery, called "capitalism."
But all of us in
the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries,
run the world, and the people suffer. So, there is no alternative for me, I must
make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following his path, the path
that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even
allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters to work here with
us, in the Libyan Jammohouriyah,
I do not wish to die, but if it comes to
that, to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children,
then so be it.
Let
this testament be my voice to the world, that I stood up to crusader attacks of
NATO, stood up to cruelty, stood up to betrayal, stood up the West and its
colonialist ambitions, and that I stood with my African brothers, my true Arab
and Muslim brothers, as a beacon of light. When others were building castles, I
lived in a modest house, and in a tent. I never forgot my youth in Sirte, I did
not spend our national treasury foolishly, and like Salah'a'deen, our great
Muslim leader, who rescued Jerusalem for Islam, I took little for
myself"
In the West, some have called me "mad," "crazy," but they know
the truth and continue to lie. They know that our land is independent and free,
not in the colonial grip, that my vision, my path, is, and has been clear and
for my people and that I will fight to my last breath to keep us free. May Allah
almighty help us to remain faithful and free.
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