20/10/2011
Who Is Colonel Gaddafi?
September 11th, 2010
Who Is Colonel Gaddafi?
Muammar Abu Minyar alGaddafi was born into a Bedouin family in the desert area of Sirte in Libya on 7 June 1942. He received a traditional religious primary education before attending a preparatory school in the town of Sebha where he became strongly influenced by the panArab nationalism being espoused by the Egyptian leader President Gemal AbdelNasser. During the Suez crisis of 1956 Gaddafi took part in antiIsraeli demonstrations staged in Sebha which led to his expulsion from the city. He moved to the coastal city of Misurata where he completed his secondary education whilst beginning to organise an underground revolutionary movement. His increasing radicalism led him to enrolling in the Military Academy at Benghazi in October 1963; in an indication of his future charisma as a leader he managed to persuade others from the underground movement to enroll in the Academy. In addition he also encouraged cadets already at the Academy to join him and the members of the underground in forming the central committee of the Free Unionist Officers in 1964. Around this time Gaddafi also enrolled in the University of Benghazi to complete his education by achieving a degree in history. On graduatig from the Military Academy he was appointed to the rank of lieutenant and assigned to the armys Signal Corps based at Gariunis on the outskirts of Benghazi. Whilst stationed there he continued to strengthen the power base of the movement the full network power and influence of which only he was completely aware of.
On 1 September 1969 he led a small group of officers in a bloody coup detat against the reigning King Idris I who was on medical retreat on a Greek resort at the time. Gaddafis rebels abolished the monarchy and established the new Libyan Arab Republic in which a Revolutionary Command Council ruled the country with Gaddafi as chairman. Rather curiously Gaddafi did not promote himself to general of the armed forces but rather accepted a ceremonial promotion from captain to colonel a rank which he has kept down to the present day. Gaddafi began to develop the mew regime along the lines of the Arab nationalism espoused by Nasser in Egypt. He labelled it as Islamic socialism in which the government controlled larger industry whilst permitting private control over smaller companies he also imposed a system of strict Islamic morals. Taking a leaf from Maos Little Red Book he outlined his vision his sagely view of the world and his universal wisdom in the originally titled Green Book which came in three mouthwatering volumes published between 1975 and 1979. In addition to his literary offering soon after coming to power he launched what he termed a cultural revolution in which he strove to eliminate all indications of western culture mainly focussing on the eradication of the two giant ideologies of capitalism and communism. He believed that once all vestiges of foreign culture were removed Libyans could build a harmonious and successful society based upon the pillars of Islam and home grown socialism.
Gaddafi stated to the Libyan population and to the wider world that he was creating a direct democracy governed by the people through local popular councils and communes but in reality the power lay solely with Gaddafi aided by a small band of trusted advisors. However Gaddafi insisted that he was implementing democracy in what he coined as Jamahiriya which could be loosely derived as power for the people by the people. But Libya is no exemplar of democracy civil liberties are basically nonexistent and opposition is simply not tolerated. Gaddafi took on the baton of panArabism from Nasser of Egypt espousing panArabism advocating a unity of all Arab states into one Arab nation. In addition Gaddafi was a supporter of panIslamism and advocated a loose union of all Islamic countries and people. In 1972 he proclaimed the Federation of Arab Republics which was to unite Libya Egypt and Syria but the three countries failed to settle on a specific agreement of how the union would work. A similar proposed merger between Libya and Tunisia failed and would gradually deteriorate into mutual animosity. With the concept of panArabism floundering Gaddafi compounded relations with his neighbouring states by invading Chad in 1973 resulting from a territorial dispute over the Aouzou Strip. Libya were to retain a presence n Chad until 1994. Gaddafis global relations were similarly not the most congenial his continued support of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and calls for the destruction of Israel made him public enemy number one with many Western states most particularly the United States of America
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