# Do you feel Col. Kaddafi deserved his fate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 6, 2014, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001 "2014-03-06T08:45:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/21 "2014-03-06T17:00:48Z")
> [@Bibliovore](#): > > And I take your point about revenge. Revenge is seldom the same thing as justice, but if you had an inkling of the horrors he inflicted on people for so long, you might understand at least some of the rage and anguish. Again, I’m not condoning it, but I understand why it happened that way. I actually think revenge and justice are exactly the same thing. The only difference is justice tends to be more restrained and “legalized” if you will. If he was tried and hung that would be more of a legalistic kind of revenge ie justice. While some countries like Norway do practice restorative justice in the US the main motive is payback. After all in most cases throwing a perp in a US prison just makes them meaner and costs us a lot of money, but it has the perk of making the public/victims feel like revenge/justice was done so street justice isn’t performed in its place. I liken our justice/revenge system to a vaccine - a vaccine to vendetta. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/22 "2014-03-06T17:02:19Z")
Oh BTW as an American I actually don’t think Osama should have been killed. How could we condemn the killing of 3000 people yet praise the killing of one? I’m an atheist and I don’t believe in an afterlife so to me killing someone is a pretty big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/23 "2014-03-06T17:39:39Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > How could we condemn the killing of 3000 people yet praise the killing of one? Unfortunately, we will never know how many people are NOT dead because we killed one man. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/24 "2014-03-06T17:39:54Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > Oh BTW as an American I actually don’t think Osama should have been killed. How could we condemn the killing of 3000 people yet praise the killing of one? I’m an atheist and I don’t believe in an afterlife so to me killing someone is a pretty big deal. This is probably a subject for a different thread, but the people who died on 9/11 were innocent civilians going about their daily lives, while bin Laden financed and approved acts of war against the United States. He was regarded as an enemy combatant and treated as such. I fully approve of our capturing him and executing him on the spot. He was no better than Gadhaffi. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/25 "2014-03-06T17:41:58Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Unfortunately, we will never know how many people are NOT dead because we killed one man. We should have achieved the same by jailing him. He was unarmed. The navy seals were the cowards, not him. Sorry if that offends but that’s just how I feel. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/26 "2014-03-06T18:06:16Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > You actually believe Col Gaddhafi could have been “rehabilitated”??? :dubious: In a world where Yasser Arafat—the man who ran an organized crime ring in Jordan, instigated the Lebenese Civil War, and popularized airliner hijackings—can win the Nobel Peace Prize, anything is up for grabs. I think Qadaffi supported state sponsored terrorism and persecuted his citizenry for arbitrary crimes, but honestly, one could apply the same criteria and come to the same conclusion about Ronald Reagan (support for the Contras, among others, and the pursuit of the War On Drugs), the differences just being in degree. Did Q deserve to die with a shiv up the arse? I’d rather he’d been brought to justice on the world stage, but regardless, he did this world he best deed in leaving it. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/27 "2014-03-06T18:12:28Z")
I realize helicopters exist and am not a military tactician and such, but should they have tried a more open, overly elaborate extraction as opposed to a quick in-out mission? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/28 "2014-03-06T20:51:26Z")
He treated his own people like shit, and never stopped, regardless of what he did internationally. They were the ones that killed him. A trial would have been better, I guess, but I can’t blame them for killing him outright. They were very understandably pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/29 "2014-03-06T21:02:05Z")
> [@Bibliovore](#): > > Again, I don’t think he should have been killed the way he was, but I do think he should have faced trial at an international court for his crimes against humanity, and executed. Keeping him alive in jail would have just encouraged his loyalists to try and re-take the country and re-install him. And frankly, I just don’t think he deserved to live any more. Unfortunately that’s not an option, The Hague court doesn’t have a death penalty. The closest they could have come, presumably, was to give him a life sentence, return him to Libya to serve it out there, where a mob could have stormed the prison and performed some other flavor of mob justice. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/30 "2014-03-06T21:03:06Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > He treated his own people like shit, and never stopped, regardless of what he did internationally. They were the ones that killed him. A trial would have been better, I guess, but I can’t blame them for killing him outright. They were very understandably pissed off. Yes. He deserved his fate in the sense that he made his bed and finally had to lay in it. It was his own actions that led to him being killed in that manner. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/31 "2014-03-06T21:47:53Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > You guys can probably fill people in on all the bad things he did from the time he took power (better than me.) But just from the point of view of a Filipino, he helped broker peace talks between the Philippine Government and the rebel Islamic faction MNLF in the 1970s so we Filipinos owe him something. He became a pariah during the 80s because of all those terrorist groups Reagan was after. But slowly in the 1990s, beginning with the gulf war, he became something of a moderate (at least in the eyes of the western media.) By 2003, economic sanctions on Libya were being lifted, his terrorist cells were supposedly being called back in exchange for supplying oil to the UK and other countries, he’s been given a seat in the UN security council, also in the mini-UN covering north Africa. > > And then he suddenly got beaten up and killed. My reaction was “What???” My reaction was “What the hell took them so damn long?” Minor Nazi war criminals who lived 50+ perfectly law-abiding years were still dragged before tribunals when the law finally caught up with them; I’d expect no less for Gadhafi. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/32 "2014-03-07T03:09:39Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > We should have achieved the same by jailing him. He was unarmed. The navy seals were the cowards, not him. Sorry if that offends but that’s just how I feel. I would like you to know that in spite of your apology, I find your statement to be very offensive and an insult to the SEALs who took part in that mission. Sorry, but that’s just the way I feel. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/33 "2014-03-07T03:12:23Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I would like you to know that in spite of your apology, I find your statement to be very offensive and an insult to the SEALs who took part in that mission. Sorry, but that’s just the way I feel. That aside, I get offended when people misuse words like “coward.” Plus shouldn’t it be the President et al. who would deserve being called cowards if any cowardice were true. Which it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/34 "2014-03-07T03:28:47Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > That aside, I get offended when people misuse words like “coward.” Plus shouldn’t it be the President et al. who would deserve being called cowards if any cowardice were true. Which it’s not. I have no problem with criticizing the leaders who give such orders. But yes, calling the boots on the ground “cowards” couldn’t be farther from the truth. Criticize Obama and the military leaders all you like, the SEALs didn’t initiate the action to take down Osama. I know I personally don’t have the physical makeup or dedication to go through their training or on any of their exercises. They save many lives and calling them cowards deeply offends me. \* - Mostly aimed at **protoboard**. I’m in agreement with you, **lurkinghorror**. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/35 "2014-03-07T08:00:06Z")
Now that Bin Laden has been mentioned, I must add that here in my country, people are more saddened at the death of Osama than Mohammar. To me it was only a matter of time for the former. I also was saddened when I watched Saddam swing. ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/36 "2014-03-07T10:03:53Z")
So you were “saddened” by the deaths of Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and Moammar Ghaddafi? ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/37 "2014-03-07T10:07:39Z")
Re: Saddam. How would you like to watch someone swing on youtube? I’m neutral with Bin Laden. He was a hunted man. But Gaddafi, I already gave my sentiments. ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/38 "2014-03-07T10:32:57Z")
Re: Saddam, I wouldn’t like to watch anyone get executed, dictator or not, but when you say you were “saddened”, it makes it sound as though you mourned their passing. If I were uncharitable (or if I hadn’t had my coffee that morning), I could even construe that to mean that you liked and supported them. As for Ghaddaffi in particular, he may very well have done a good thing for the Philippines, but even if that were true, I doesn’t negate the 42 years of brutality he inflicted on his own people. This is a man who publically hanged those who criticized him, showcasing the deaths as public spectacles in sports stadiums while forcing the mothers of the victims to publically denounce and disown them. This is a man who sent secret police crashing into people’s homes at night to drag out anyone who was even suspected of opposing him, then inflict the most unimaginable tortures upon them for years. This is a man who ushered in an era of rampant corruption, nepotism and cronyism, and who set his sons up as little lordlings who were free to rape whomever they pleased and loot and line their pockets as they pleased. This is a man who sponsored and supported terrorism overseas, and who turned his country into a place where neighbour feared neighbour, and where people didn’t dare even whisper their discontent for fear that their teacher, their barber or a member of their own family would inform on them. This is a man who inflicted on his nation an age of anguish and torment that has twisted the very psyche of its people, and from which it will take generations to recover. Good riddance to him ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/39 "2014-03-07T10:46:36Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I have no problem with criticizing the leaders who give such orders. But yes, calling the boots on the ground “cowards” couldn’t be farther from the truth. Criticize Obama and the military leaders all you like, the SEALs didn’t initiate the action to take down Osama. I know I personally don’t have the physical makeup or dedication to go through their training or on any of their exercises. They save many lives and calling them cowards deeply offends me. \* Sorry to invoke Godwin’s Law but would you absolve the people who ran the death camps of guilt for the Holocaust because they were just following orders? Shooting an unarmed person is cowardly no matter what. It doesn’t matter what they have done. As an American and a human I have a right to feel this way. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001/40 "2014-03-07T11:45:43Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > Sorry to invoke Godwin’s Law but would you absolve the people who ran the death camps of guilt for the Holocaust because they were just following orders? > > Shooting an unarmed person is cowardly no matter what. It doesn’t matter what they have done. As an American and a human I have a right to feel this way. Yes because killing the mastermind of multiple terror operations which have killed thousands of people (Of which 9/11 was but one example) is\* exactly\* the same as imprisoning torturing and gassing a group of people solely because of their ethnicity. This isn’t the stupidest thing posted on these boards, but it’s definitely in dishonorable mention territory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-col-kaddafi-deserved-his-fate/683001.md?page=3)