Gaddafi announces separation from Arabs

[dArKeR]

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, once a devoted and energetic champion of Arab unity, has announced his definitive separation from the Arabs, whom he heavily criticised.

Standing before a group of women, in a Mediterranean villa in Syrte about 500km east of Tripoli, Gaddafi declared himself more than ever African, claiming to be "forever beyond nationalism and Arab unity."

Admittedly, Colonel Gaddafi is famous for his verbal excesses and spectacular rebuttals, but his declaration Saturday sounded like an irreconcilable divorce from the Arabs, coming from the mouth of an aging Gaddafi who in recent years has never given up on the ideals from his youth.

When he took power September 1 1969 the young leader, raised in the cult of the former president, the Egyptian unionist Jamal Abdel Nasser, threw himself body and soul into attempting unity.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1065422881364B213&set_id=1

[papau]

1. maybe he noticed the Berber population?Arab speaking but not arab.

About time - perhaps Algeria and Tunisia will also notice the make up of their populations?

:-)

[Paschall]

3. Arab speaking only by force

After independence, the victorious parties adopted a policy of forced Arabisation. The Berbers have their own language.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200203130753.html

[La_Serpiente]

2. I'm concerned about this

I am not an expert on Arab relations...But did he make the right decision? Is he fooling himself to thinking that the US will like him more? I doubt it.

Then again, Northern Africans AREN'T ethnically Arab. I think they are something else, but I'm not sure.

But Morrocco is part of the Arab league also.

[even]

7. Morocco?

You are no expert at all. Find LIbya if you can understand.

[E_Zapata]

4. I thought he was a lot smarter than that:

Doesn't he know that the 'west' tends to invade oil producing nations that are more secular than religious, esp if it's more non-muslim than is?

He just made friends with the UK recently in some deal or another. I guess he needs to build up his armory, and making friends with the US/UK for a few years is a good way to get lots of freebies, and 'intelligence' to boot.

Maybe he is a bit smarter.

[Muddleoftheroad]

5. Since 9-11

Qadaffi or however the hell we spell his name today has seemed to wise up. He distanced himself both from the attackers and al Qaeda. He cooperated strongly with the U.S. in providing intelligence and has worked hard at settling the terror case against his nation for his past acts.

I'm not saying he's reformed, but he seems smarter. And I'm guessing he smells trouble in the wind and doesn't want any part of an Arab war.

[Aidoneus]

6. he didn't have to "seperate himself" from anything

MI6 once paid al-Qai'dah to try and kill him years back..

[Muddleoftheroad]

8. Qaddaffi and terror

Go together like beer and pizza. If he has reformed, that's great. But it's not like he hasn't used the tool in the past.

[Aidoneus]

9. tedious sloganeering

When has he ever had "ties" to "al-Qai'dah" that he would have to "distance himself from" as you said--you remember your own words, right? And it's not like "terror" hasn't been used against Libya in the past, either.

[Muddleoftheroad]

13. Distance

Well, as a leading advocate of terror in the past, Qaddaffi DISTANCED himself from the attacks and even criticized them. Whether has had ties to al Qaeda or not does not matter. He has been a major user and abuser of terror.

[GermanDJ]

12. Actually, I do eat pizza but I never drink beer

That's a lame attempt at a joke, I know :)

A couple of weeks ago there were quite a lot of reports - at least here in Europe - that relatives of the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing do not believe that Libya was involved in this act of terror.
Also a lot of journalists here think that this cruel act of terror was a retaliation for the attack of the US cruiser Vincennes on an Iranian passenger jet over the Persian Gulf. This happened only a short time before Lockerbie: The USS Vincennes - cruising in Iranian territorial waters - shot down an Iranian Airbus in Iranian airspace and killed all 290 passengers.

And there is also no clear evidence that Libya was responsible for the bombing of a nightclub here in Berlin in 1986. I can tell you: I was very surprised when I found out about this by re-reading articles about this act of terror. I always thought that this case was very clear. But it's not. I just didn't pay much attentention to the details.

What I found especially interesting was the Interpol-file on Osama bin Laden. I used to think that police authorities from the US indicted him first. But that's not the case. It was done by Libyan police after they found out that bin Laden was involved in a crime on Libyan soil.

I can tell you, it's amazing how my attitude has changed in *many* ways since I invested a little bit of my time in reading more newspapers and political magazines like "Der Spiegel" ( http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/english/ ).

The world is not as black and white as it always seemed to me.

[Character Assassin]

10. 'Arab unity' has never existed except in Fantasyland, so this is practical

Standing before a group of women, in a Mediterranean villa in Syrte about 500km east of Tripoli, Gaddafi declared himself more than ever African, claiming to be "forever beyond nationalism and Arab unity."

Sheesh, it makes one wonder what took him so long to stop banging his head over and over again against that particular wall.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

11. women... "better than men and more capable."

And once more the top Libyan put his faith in women, deeming them "better than men and more capable."

Gaddafi, who travels with a female security detail, called on Libyan women on October 1 to train themselves against "the enemy," and to be inspired by the women of Africa, whose situation he believes, is better than that of Eastern and Western women.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1065422881364B213&set_id=1

If I ever become a dictator, I'm gonna have an all-female bodyguard too...

[Muddleoftheroad]

14. Will you also design a car?

Keeping up with the Joneses after all.

[David__77]

15. Nothing new here. It's been years now.

For years he's been more interested in "African issues" and pan-Africanism than anything else. He's very good friends with Mandela and the South African government.

Years ago, I read Qaddafi's "Green Book," which is his definitive political tract. It's a blend of vague "socialism" without any details about the economy, "religion" which is a rather secular Islam, and paeans about woman's role which is rather male chauvinist.