Don't Predict Gaddafi

IT AIN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVER

          The title is a famous quote from Yogi Berra.  It has two sources.  One is the fact that many operas end with an aria by the main soprano who then dies.  Operatic sopranos are stereotyped as being fat as a result of the eating they do to maintain the energy needed for opera, especially a Wagnerian one.  The other is the fact that there is no time clock in baseball.  Each team gets 27 outs or nine innings or as many a needed until a winner is decided.

          Well, this applies to Gaddafi and Libya as well.  Last night, all the news outlets, including Al-Jazeera, considered him finished.  He then blew up a bunch of people and made a few audio appearances on a Libyan and a Syrian station. 

          I have heard arguments that “it is difficult to argue that he should remain in power, despite how well he administered the country.”  Actually, it is quite easy to argue either side of that issue as any attorney or rhetorician will tell you, but that it besides the point.  What happened is that NATO attacked the country and led to the chaos you see because NATO serves capitalist interests and Libya was essentially Socialist.  As a capitalist force, there is no point in making any sort of moral (“should”) judgments as Capitalism is at best an amoral system.

          I have also had to point out to people that it is foolish to attempt to predict what Gaddafi will do next.  There is no way of telling or predicting.  The only thing that is clear is that he has said that the “rebels” are “traitors and rats.” 

          A final point on Al Jazeera:  it is owned by Qatar, a country that joined NATO in the attack.  Most decisions in Qater, I understand, are made by the wife of the leader and her name is Moza or, in English translation, Banana.  Banana has mad policy changes that have led to the resignation to many fine journalists from the station.   Even so, it is still more reliable than most western news outlets.