This is just all sorts of fucked up. Depressing that al-Shabab dressing up its own dead soldiers in AU uniforms, decapatating some of them, and displaying their bodies is the best case scenario here. Wow.

From Eric Margolis: “If Gaddafi was indeed behind the aircraft bombings, as most of the world believes, then he deserves not one bit of sympathy from us. If not, then we should at least acknowledge him for building modern Libya.” Right. So if he didn’t do these two bad things, we should forget all the other bad things, and, logically, give him credit for “building modern Libya.” Guess that’s the only available option. I wish I had met the guy like you so I could have figured all that out sooner. There are some other gems in here like “I still can’t figure out whether Gaddafi was really hearing voices that guided him, or just having adolescent fun scandalizing and frightening the world.” Again, I don’t really think those have to be the only options I get to pick from. You guys at home can parse through this drivel for some of the other astounding inconsistencies, but really, the point I would like to make is that you can oppose the foreign military intervention in Libya, criticize the NTC, and even recognize the good things Gaddafi did without resorting to a complete character revision of a fairly shitty dictator. Criminalizing homosexuality, executing political opponents, and suppressing freedom of speech are not actions of a man who was simply “eccentric,” “odd,” or least of all naive. They are actions of someone who was probably psychotic and definitely strategic in his efforts to remain in power and enrich himself and his family. I’m not gonna accuse you of forgetting that, Eric, just of pretending to. Also, for someone who knew him so well, you spelled his name wrong.