# Should they hang Gadhafi like they did Mussolini? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 21, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550 "2011-08-21T17:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/1 "2011-08-21T17:56:20Z")
The rebels are advancing into Tripoli and overrun the base of the Khamis Brigade. Taking lots of weapons and ammunition. Hopefully this nightmare of bloodshed will finally end very soon. Gadhafi could have ended this weeks ago and fled somewhere safe. Instead it looks like the rebels will have to literally break down the palace doors. What should they do with Gadhafi? I’m reminded of Mussolini. They strung him & his mistress upside down on meat hooks and the dead bodies stoned. > **[Benito Mussolini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini)** > > Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (UK: /ˌmʊsəˈliːni, ˌmʌs-/ MU(U)SS-ə-LEE-nee, US: /ˌmuːs-/ MOOSS-, Italian: \[beˈniːto aˈmilkare anˈdrɛːa mussoˈliːni\]; 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian dictator and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 1943, as well as "Duce" of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 until his summary execution in 1... A bit gruesome. But, imagine what Gadhafi has done in the past forty years. Not to mention the atrocities his troops have done in the past few weeks. You think Gadhafi will be executed by the rebels? Should they give him a trial? ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/2 "2011-08-21T18:02:12Z")
I think he’s going to flee at the very last minute and get asylum somewhere, so no, he won’t be subjected to execution. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/3 "2011-08-21T18:05:43Z")
Execution is too much bother. Two in the head while “trying to escape”. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/4 "2011-08-21T18:13:10Z")
He’ll probably try Heinrich Himmler’s trick. They’ll catch Gadhafi disguised as a Bedouin goat herder. 😉 > [@](#): > > Unwanted by his former colleagues and hunted by the Allies, Himmler wandered for several days around Flensburg near the Danish border. Attempting to evade arrest, he disguised himself as a sergeant-major of the Secret Military Police, using the name Heinrich Hitzinger, shaving his moustache and donning an eye patch over his left eye, > **[Heinrich Himmler | Capture and death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler#Capture_and_death)** > > Rejected by his former comrades and hunted by the Allies, Himmler attempted to go into hiding. He had not made extensive preparations for this, but he carried a forged paybook under the name of Sergeant Heinrich Hizinger. On 11 May 1945, with a small band of companions, he headed south to Friedrichskoog, without a final destination in mind. They continued to Neuhaus, where the group split up. On 21 May, Himmler and two aides were stopped and detained at a checkpoint in Bremervörde set up by forme... ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/5 "2011-08-21T20:02:49Z")
He should be taken to court like they did with Mubarak in Egypt. It’s the only decent thing to do if you believe in democracy and the [Rechtsstaat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_state), which I hope the rebels and the majority of the citizens of Libya do. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/6 "2011-08-21T20:09:48Z")
He should probably be imprisoned by the Libyan people or handed over to the courts in The Hague. But I don’t think it’s likely; the rebels are too impassioned against him and he’s killed too many directly for those rebels who eventually do capture him to really take him peacefully, even if he did surrender. I think he’ll either go down fighting or be killed by the first rebels who reach him. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/7 "2011-08-21T20:14:43Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > He should probably be imprisoned by the Libyan people or handed over to the courts in The Hague. But I don’t think it’s likely; the rebels are too impassioned against him and he’s killed too many directly for those rebels who eventually do capture him to really take him peacefully, even if he did surrender. I think he’ll either go down fighting or be killed by the first rebels who reach him. Yep. I’d be surprised if he got out alive on any terms now. He might suck a gun when he’s backed into his last corner. He should have taken one of his chances for a negotiated step-down and exile. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/8 "2011-08-21T20:27:55Z")
I can’t imagine him letting himself be captured or killed; he’s got WAY too much $$$ in Swiss banks waiting for him, so when the writing is on the wall, he’ll just hop into a waiting helicopter and light out for the territory ahead of the rest… His kind of money will buy him a nice, cushy exile in some lavish palace somewhere, with all the whores and Hoodoo Powder he can handle, maybe in Caracas with Homeboy Hugo; “Hey Bitch, where’s the Good Stuff?” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/9 "2011-08-21T21:58:18Z")
No, were much too civilized today to execute him… Did I keep a straight face when typing that? I think it could happen. Ideally he would go before court, but I hear mixed reports about how organized the rebels are, and if a less disciplined squad gets there first… He may try to flee, although could it possibly be too late by that point? He’s had months to decide to leave. **Oakminster** ’s solution seems more likely than Mussolini’s death. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/10 "2011-08-21T22:02:50Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > …when the writing is on the wall, he’ll just hop into a waiting helicopter and light out for the territory ahead of the rest… [I think it’s too late for that.](http://abcnews.go.com/International/libyan-rebels-captured-gadhafis-son-tripoli/story?id=14349513) > [@Olivia Katrandjian and Jeffrey Kofman / ABC](#): > > Rebel forces have captured Seif al Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, in Tripoli and are surrounding the Gadhafi compound, Bab al Aziziya, a representative of the rebel government told ABC News. > > Mohamad al Akari, a Transitional National Council advisor, said that if Moammar Gadhafi is still in Tripoli, they believe he is in Bab al Aziziya. > > “ **Tonight it’s over** ,” Akari said. > > Libyan rebel forces are now in Green Square in the heart of Tripoli, according to multiple reports. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/11 "2011-08-21T22:20:48Z")
The relatives of these victims will sleep easier if they get Gadhafi. I recall this bombing was right before Christmas. A lot of the victims were college kids coming home for the holidays. A bullet is really too good for Gadhafi, but it’ll have to do. If they want a trial and then execution that is ok too. This is only one of many atrocities he was behind. I doubt they could ever fully document what he’s done to the Libyan people in the past 40 years. > [@](#): > > All 243 passengers and 16 crew members were killed. Eleven residents of Lockerbie also died. Of the total of 270 fatalities, 190 were American citizens and 43 British citizens. No more than 4 of the remaining 37 victims of the bombing came from any one of the 19 other countries. > **[Pan Am Flight 103](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103)** > > Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 "Clipper Maid of the Seas" was destroyed by a bomb while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew aboard. Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, the event,... ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/12 "2011-08-21T22:54:52Z")
Regardless of stated intent to arrest him, I believe that he will either be killed during the “capture”, or escape to another country, followed by a media circus as he either moves from one country to another trying to find somewhere that will take him, or gets arrested and whatever nation that is plays with extraditing him back to Libya. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/13 "2011-08-22T01:34:48Z")
Apparently ol’ Moammar is still in Tripoli, and he just gave a radio broadcast urging those still loyal to him to fight to the bitter end. I thought one of lines he used in his little speech was pretty good: “Any of you men who are afraid to fight for me should just give your weapons to your mother or sisters!” Trash-talk from Casbah, baybee!!! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/14 "2011-08-22T01:52:13Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I thought one of lines he used in his little speech was pretty good: “Any of you men who are afraid to fight for me should just give your weapons to your mother or sisters!” I have a picture of Mom rifle butting her loyalist son in the face and running out the door screaming “For the Revolution” and firing into the air. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/15 "2011-08-22T02:04:34Z")
Apparently the rebels have accepted the surrender of two Ghadafi sons, including Seif al-Islam. Possibly I didn’t give the rebels enough credit; I would have expected them to refuse surrenders of Ghadafi’s sons. Maybe they will capture him and try him. Good on them if they do. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/16 "2011-08-22T02:41:22Z")
No. Nor should they have hung Mussolini, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/17 "2011-08-22T03:06:46Z")
Well, the rebel spokesperson is [quoted] ([http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16054331](http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16054331)) as saying they shouldn’t: > [@](#): > > Opposition spokesman Mahmoud Shammam told Sky News that rebels would not harm Col Gaddafi in the event of his capture. > > “There are many rumours about his location, although I believe that he might be near the Algerian border,” he said. > > "If we capture him in Tripoli or in any other way, we are going to guarantee him safety and the safety of his family. > > "We want to see him tried in Libya, not in any other place in the world. We guarantee there will be no hanging in the street, no revenge in the street.” Which won’t save him from some rebel trooper with a personal grievance shooting him on sight against orders, of course. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/18 "2011-08-22T03:43:04Z")
Definitely not. I don’t think they will, either; the scenes in Green Square right now look like a joyful party, with old people and little kids and fireworks. There are also a few bonfires, but it’s 5am and it’ll be a bit cold out on the streets. Gadaffi could force a shoot-out or something, however - he seems determined not to leave. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/19 "2011-08-22T04:37:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Should they hang Gadhafi like they did Mussolini? So, by the heels? No. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550/20 "2011-08-22T11:10:06Z")
Gadhafi’s bodyguard troops have surrendered. Ironic that another of his old crimes bites him in the ass. > [@](#): > > When rebels reached the gates of Tripoli, the special battalion entrusted by Gadhafi with guarding the capital promptly surrendered. The reason: Its commander, whose brother had been executed by Gadhafi years ago, was secretly loyal to the rebellion, a senior rebel official, Fathi al-Baja, told The Associated Press. [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML\_LIBYA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-08-21-18-32-32](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_LIBYA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-08-21-18-32-32) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-they-hang-gadhafi-like-they-did-mussolini/593550.md?page=2)