Gaddafi -- They *WILL* not understand.

I am quite amazed at the systematic misunderstanding of Gaddfi as displayed in our media.  I doubt seriously if anyone there even wants to understand him.

In fact, he is the one world leader that we *WILL* not understand.  If rather reminds me of the maxim, I think H.G. Wells used it first, that "There are none so blind as those who WILL not see."  I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

The most important thing to accept is that he is a phenomenon left over from the 20th Century, probably one of the last.  He is a revolutionary.  He is like Lenin, not Stalin; like Che Guevara, not Fidel Castro, and so on.  We could have made a good deal with Fidel back then, but chose not to.  Che left him because of the deal he made with the Russians.  He overthrew a monarchy managed by the Italian colonialists and liberated his country.  He never abandoned the rank of Colonel -- titles for for the selfish.

Most of the people in his country now never experienced life under a colonial power.  Many never experienced life before the huge oil revenues, so even they do not get it.

He certainly is not this clown who fled Tunisia after deposing Bourgehba and gutting his Code of Personal Status, a set of laws that gave great liberties and rights to the people.  He is not Mubarak -- the closest you can get is Gamal Nasser. 

The point I am making is that when he says he will fight to the "Last drop of his blood," he means it quite literally.  He will not go gently into that good night.  Even some media commentators have pointed this out in the last few hours.

Many, if not most, if not all, of those fleeing the country are Tunisians, Egyptians, and other foreign nationals.  They made a much better living in Libya under him.  Note also that some of those holding up Arabic signs can not be Arabs or literate as some of those signs are upside down.  Now, I can not read Arabic script, but I can tell up from down.

Yes, he drove many U.S. Presidents mad.  I had often thought he was on hashish when being interviewed, and finally, Fareed Zak***** of GPS on CNN confirmed that he had the same impression.  Another who interviewed him was Barbara Walters who asked him if it bothered him that many people thought he was insane.  It was the first time I had seen him laugh out loud with a twinkle of delight in his eyes.  He then said it did because it meant they did not understand him.  Well, they didn't.

There was a great deal of anger at him for encouraging terrorism, but his response was that he did support the IRA.  He believed in their goals.  [The Irish have been occupied by England for over 400 years, after all.]

There have been claims that he is in league with Islamic extremists.  That is nuts.  They hate him even more than the "West" does.  He has no use for them, either.  Never did.

Well, anyway, that is the problem.  He is a true revolutionary whether you like it or not and will remain one.  His children are different -- they will deal with you, but not him.  He is ready and willing to die and take as many enemies of the revolution with him as possible and there is nothing that will change that.

That's it.