Now that he's gone, Colonel Gaddafi's legacy doesn't look so bad. Overthowing him was a bad mistake, for which the Mediterranean world is paying the consequences.

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Does anyone else miss Muammar Gaddafi?

He of the threads and the ten-girl posse.

Toting his haima , in the backyard he camped,

Raising no fuss if with babes it was cramped.

.

He was odd, he was cool, independent, aloof.

He did as he liked, was under no hoof.

Dodging astutely from big-power clutches,

He sold oil, bought Fiat, never sought crutches.

.

Libyans prospered, they got a good deal:

Free college for all and food for a steal.

Here were good doctors, there cement roads.

But jerk not his chain: he took poorly to goads.

.

He got along great with the Bush CIA ,

When called to whack Qaeda was no MIA.

He even stopped folks from jumping the Med.

Stopped them before in the desert they bled.

.

He threw heart and soul into those non-aligned.

With Africa he wanted all Afs of one mind:

Enough of the white men who'd stolen and robbed,

Gobbling up assets like corn off the cob.

.

A posture resented by folks in the West,

Who hate a loose cannon, a saint or a pest.

So when Arab Spring in Libya got sprung,

The Yanks and the Euros all wanted him hung.

.

Sent in their bombers and fine special forces,

And topped it all off with democracy courses.

Gaddafi was chased to a pipe underground,

Filmed while the mob to a pulp did him pound.

.

Libya's stunned since as a model of progress:

So calm, like Iraq, with smooth-running congress.

Migration has stopped, Al Qaeda is nil,

There are jobs for the taking and all eat their fill.

.

Hence for Syria we want the same thing:

To throw out Assad and let freedom ring.

There's nothing like being a western Samaritan,

It makes a guy proud to say he's American.

Authors Website: http://www.philipkraske.com

Authors Bio:

For a recording of this poem, go to my website: http://www.philipkraske.com/kraske-fiction/