Colonel Khadaffi - why is he just a colonel, and not a general or commander in chief?
Is Colonel his first name, like Major Applewhite?
Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi (Khadaffi…?) was a Colonel when he joined the Libyan revolution in 1969.
Today he is “Leader of the Revolution” and officially doesn’t hold any political office but in fact rules his country as a dictator.
Was there anybody of higher rank in the Libyan revolution? Or did it just go to Colonel?
well, he’s had 35 years and he hasn’t given himself a promotion?
I’m joking a little. He’s still referred to as Colonel Khadaffi by some press. I guess you are saying the name stuck.
There is something of a tendency to refer to military officers or enlisted men who overthrow governments by the rank they held when they overthrew the government.
Some examples of this off the top of my head:
Sgt. Samuel Doe, Liberia
Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings, Ghana
Col. Damien(sp?) Velchev, Bulgaria
Sgt. Fulgencio Batista, Cuba
Perhaps he feels that he EARNED the title “Colonel”, and keeps it for that reason.
His actual rank in the pre-coup Libyan army was captain. The RCC promoted him to colonel when they chose him as commander in chief of their armed forces, a few days after pulling off the coup:
From here:
Also, at some point in the late 70s or early 80s ol’ Muammar stopped being an active-list officer (when you’re the dictator, it’s pretty silly to worry about whether you’ll make the next promotion list). So he’s using his last active-duty title.
The Lybian revolutionary government completely purged the General/Flag Officer ranks and discontinued all promotion to the grades for over a decade, essentially because those ranks had become associated with the old regime, and the already-serving senior field-grade officers who would have been in line during the 70s, were also mostly aligned with the old guard. Thus they allowed supporters of the Qaddafi revolution to build up careers.
Once the revolution was properly consolidated the General Officer ranks were restored, theoretically up to LTG, but not all are used at any given time due to the small size of the Lybian military. Lybia’s National Assembly DID authorize Qaddafi for promotion all the way up to Major General, but he explicitly made it be only “honorary”.
I asked my ROTC roommate about this back in college (Gadhafi was in rare form back when I was in college, 1979-83). He explained that despots can’t just give themselves more elevated military rankings on a whim and be recognized as such by the militaries of other nations, that the UN has definite protocols for who gets recognized as a General, etc., and that, frankly, Generals know things about military organization that Gadhafi doesn’t, even though he is their commander-in-chief.
JFK was a Lieutenant. I’m guessing he was able to live with the shame of underachievement by catting around with the cream of Hollywood starlets.
And then there was Corporal Hitler.
Yes, that is one detail about third-world potentates. When they promote themselves in total disproportion to their true military clout it only makes them look sillier. MSgt Doe in Liberia and Sgt. Batista in Cuba eventually commissioned and promoted themselves to Full General. Yeah right .
Looking at the rest of the Arab World… I don’t think Nasser made much of a big deal of promoting himself when he took over in Egypt, either (and he would have been MQ’s inspiration). Career officers Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak and Hafez Assad, once in the presidential palace reserved the uniforms only for special ocassions and went around their everyday work in civilian dress. I suppose that is a sign of how confident you are in your own power and authority, AND it’s a way of showing the Army you respect the institution and the people who earn their grade – which should help you sleep less nervously.
My dad had a cup of coffee with him and his entourage while escaping Czechoslovakia in Italy before comming to Canada. Dad said he was a little off his rocker.
Don’t forget Castro making himself, and everyone else in his band “Comandante”.
Well, one interesting part of this is that in the Cuban (and later, Sandinista) revolution, originally “Comandante” (commander) was EVERY person to have commanded anything, so it applied to about anyone from company XOs to El Jefe Máximo. So in that sense Fidel was roughly logical about the leadership of the revolution all being “comandantes” (Which BTW in the prerevolutionary Cuban Army was also the title of the rank of Major). Pretty soon in the course of events each revolution saw that this would not work, so within like 5 years they reclassified so “Comandante” was the title of general/flag officers (Comandante de Brigada, Comandante de División, Comandante de Cuerpo de Ejército) and eventually they just left it as a Title of Honor and went back to normal rank designations.
He didn’t want to upstage that fried chicken guy.
The short answer is because virtually everyone who outranked him at the time of the Revolution realized that it probably wasn’t in their interests to be leading a coup and begged off- or were in custody (or killed) as loyalists.
Could part of it be (in addition to some valid points here) that he and others like him want to use psychology in that they want the populace to think they are somehow closer to them in thier plight?
I don’t know about Lybia, but coups and revolutions are often led by the guys who got passed over for general one time too many. Colonel is also just about the highest rank where the troops still know their C.O personally - the perfect place for ambitious, charisatic leaders. While generals usualy stay cooped up in offices and parlour rooms, cololnels are out in the field inspiring loyalty.
I assume he was an army colonel, not an air force colonel?
Really? How interesting!
Yes, he was an Army captain; Signal Corps (communications; knew how to move or stop the flow of information and commands. Very useful in plotting a coup). Was quickly field-promoted to colonel during the initial aftermath of the Sept. '69 coup, and appointed CinC by the junta.
By January of '70 his faction of younger, more radical junior officers prevailed within the revolution’s politics and he took over as sole leader; in the purge all the senior ranks were cleared out.