Col. Gaddafi is dead, confirms Reuters. No surprise as it was expected. He brought it upon himself.
It was suggested in this blog earlier that once Arab spring had started in Tunisia and engulfed Egypt too, Gaddafi should have seen the hurricane coming his way. He should have immediately announced elections in three months and offered to step down once a new President (not one of his sons) and Parliament were elected. Had he done that, he may possibly have lived his retired life in peace.
But dictators never learn a lesson from the downfall of other dictators. They somehow think, they will last forever, but they don't, do they? Gaddafi may have been a benevolent dictator, but a dictator nevertheless.
He transformed Libya from a poor country under the rule of an ailing King to a relatively prosperous country. But running the country as his personal fiefdom with an iron grip on power for forty one years ultimately did him in.
Let us hope the new rulers of Libya stop the bloodshed now, take back weapons from all fighters and install an interim Government quickly. The interim set up should hold free and fair elections within three months and hand over power to elected representatives. If they do this, Libya and its people will be on their feet again fairly quickly. But if they resort to revenge killings, property destruction etc. of their opponents, Libya could slip into civil war.
