10.25.2011 12:00 AM

In today’s Sun: Libya’s new era

Gathered near the White House fence, the expatriate Libyans sang and chanted and laughed, celebrating the demise of Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
Some waved American flags; others wrapped themselves in the new flag of Libya. Their joy was infectious.

It was Thursday night, and Gadhafi — the homicidal tyrant who had ruled Libya for more than 40 years — was indisputably dead. For the Libyan celebrants, it was almost too good to be true. They hugged each other and whooped. Only a couple D.C. police officers loitered nearby, barely paying the Libyans any attention.

I was there with 45 Grade 7 and 8 students from a Toronto school attended by two of my sons. We were there on a field trip, and running into the Libyans at the White House was a wonderful surprise.

8 Comments

  1. CQ says:

    In my day, public school grade 7 and 8 kids didn’t go on trips to Ottawa (7s) and Washington (8s) until late Spring and then only for those kids permitted top grades. There’s some of Toronto’s Gravy spending right there. Maybe the kids can calculate when their field trip is finally paid for – debtfree?

    note: (I was permanently kicked out of adv 7th math during its first class, and pingponged later through 8th Englishes. Didn’t matter, was still a bedwetter anyway – only started after watching my doggie get run over).

  2. Pedro says:

    A group of people celebrating the death, by possible execution, of a human, not known by us in the West other than by the snippets of information gleaned by intermittent observers, most of which had little interaction with the said tyrant.
    Let us describe the elephant in the room.
    If we subscribe to human values, no matter what our rage against a tyrant, then I would think that if we are above religious mindlessness, the individual should have had an opportunity to state their justification for a life led.
    Anything other defiles anyone’s belief that capital (death sentence) decree is inhumane and not just.
    I used to believe that capital punishment was just.
    We should not trade diplomatically with an elite that summarily made a judgement of the tyrant, even though through the action of a hate-filled reaction.
    Those who possibly summarily executed Gadhaffi should be prosecuted, if this was the case.
    As a member of the church of Rome, as I believe progressive members today wish it to be today, this execution was a sin against God.
    But we will trade in goods and ideas with the coming regime in Libya because we believe in the good ness of man’s and woman’s souls while disregarding evil and despicalble acts in order to keep evil at bay.
    Can we imagine a most evil-doer being found in Canada and an individual acting the same way?
    I have told my children that the summary execution of a most evil man was itself evil and contrary to Christ in a most forthright way.
    I trust Warren had a similar discussion with his children

  3. allegra fortissima says:

    Libyans in Libya and all over the world have good reasons to celebrate the end of Gadhafi’s dictatorship – I only wish I could share their optimism:

    http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/read/article2456252.ece?homepage=true

    • allegra fortissima says:

      The article is no longer available, unfortunately. Here is a quote:

      “Libya’s Islamist rebirth: ‘Air Cargo’, was how MI6 officer Mark Allen called him, in a secret letter to Libya’s Foreign Minister, written on Christmas Day in 2003. Last month, six years later, after the CIA and MI6 put him into a grim warehouse in Tripoli, the Abusalim prison, the ‘Air Cargo’ reappeared as head of the forces which stormed Tripoli. Abdelhakim Belhadj’s story illustrates the Islamist rebirth in Libya – and helps to understand just why the euphoria over Mr. Qadhafi’s defeat might be ill-founded.

      From his webpage on Minbar al-Tawhid, the leading Middle Eastern jihadist site, we know something of Mr. Belhadj’s world view: the LIFG, he proclaimed, opposed democracy as a mater of religious doctrine, as those who believe in the glory of Islam could be achieved without a jihad.”

  4. MCBellecourt says:

    My inner sense has never failed me for all these years, and it is now telling me that Libya has gone from the frying pan into a raging fire. It has been confirmed that Shariah Law will be the basis for their government policies and that polygamy is being re-permitted. Shariah Law is notoriously anti-woman and women’s rights will be trampled on as time goes on.

    There are also several reports that the real reason Ghaddafi was ***LYNCHED*** is because he was moving towards moving Libya to a gold-based dinar monetary system and that he was going to bring the rest of Africa alongside.

    North America and the UN are actively defending a fiat money, usary system, and that system will ultimately fail, even though the demise of said system may be delayed by so-called ‘austerity’ measures (imposed on ordinary people, not fat cats) and ‘toss-’em-a-bone’ stimilus programs to keep the masses placated.

    The more one reads, the more one realizes, that Libyans may very well not have any reason to celebrate whatsoever. Doesn’t mean I hope that my inner sense will fail me for the first time in my life, but…I guess time will tell.

    And yes. Ghaddafi was LYNCHED. Which pretty much renders the Geneve Convention effectively castrated. Oh, and did I mention that Canada is also a signatory to the Rome Statute?

    The moment we failed to uphold the rule of law whenever we are involved in any conflict is the moment we have lost our humanity. Canada has lost a lot in the last few weeks. I am deeply saddened for all the suffering Ghaddafi has caused, but I am even more deeply saddened for the new low my beloved country has sank into.

    May God forgive us.

  5. Michael Radan says:

    Meet the new boss
    Same as the old boss

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