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.

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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.

Authors Bio:
Sam Hamod, Ph.D. is a graduate professor; he has taught courses in creative writing, politics, religion, mass media and intercultural relations. He has one of the very few PhDs awarded by The Writers Workshop of The Univ. of Iowa, has published 12 books of poems, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and has 3 more books under contract, including his memoirs, "At the Broadway Lounge: A Muslim Life in America." His M.A. and B.A. are from Northwestern University, and he went to Law School at The Univ. of Chicago. He is the former Director of The Islamic Center in Washington, DC; he founded and edited THIRD WORLD NEWS in Wash, DC; has taught at Princeton, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Howard and Valparaiso. He also served as an advisor to the State Department and worked on the "peace process" between Palestine and Israel in Wash, DC. He founded www.todaysalternativenews.com in 2000. He has lectured and read his work all over America, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.