SAVAGES

NO MERCY. Gadhafi, seen here, bloodied after his capture and death.
Photo courtesy of Agence France-Presse.

Before news of his death came out, I already expected Muammar Gadhafi to die.

But not in the way I saw it happened.

All along, I thought he was going to be captured alive. Then sent to prison and treated with accordance to law. I thought he will be put to trial for his crimes to humanity. Chances are, he's going to be hanged or shot for his crimes. My thoughts were somehow reminiscent of Saddam Hussein's death back in 2003. But soon, it dawned on me why that idea was did not happen -- Iraq was occupied by the Americans at that time, majority of Iraqis are Sunnis just like Saddam who looked up at him throughout his regime.

Libya is different. What we have there are a group of oppressed and defiant revolutionaries who will risk everything and will resort to anything just to get their freedom back. Unlike the Americans, they won't think twice about killing the famed despot on the spot upon arrest. And that is what exactly happened.

I am appalled by the savagery of the rebels who captured Gadhafi -- how they took him out of that sewer pipe and dragged him by the hair to a waiting truck, how they displayed his still alive body to the multitude of bystanders with their cellphone cameras, how they shouted in celebration and brandished their weapons insensitive to the needs of the dying man. It makes me cringe and think twice about the type of people replacing  the long-time and long-hated tyrant. Sooner or later, the same savage people will find their selves fighting for influence, power and resources. Given the still murky future which awaits Libya, it is still likely that it will revert to being an isolated state once these savage rebels take the reins of government. From here starts a never ending cycle of savagery unless someone more civilized takes over.

But even the more civilized can become savage too, and we've already seen it earlier this year. You see, Gadhafi is not the only madman killed this year -- Osama bin Laden was also killed back in May. And while you might think that the Americans will breathe a calm, sigh of relief, the celebrations that followed were no different to what the rebels in Libya are now doing. Nor are they different from hooligans whose football team just won a championship.

Which leads me to question: Why do we celebrate the death of a person, let alone an evil one?

Despite the cruelty of Gadhafi to his own kind, the Libyan rebels still owe a lot to his existence. Without Gadhafi's 42 years of dictatorship, they won't realize and aspire for what true freedom really means. I believe that only when a people is chained and enslaved that they will truly know what liberty is. Thus, the savagery that these rebels have shown is not what Gadhafi deserves. This acts only justifies his own tyrannical deeds and tramples on the very essence of freedom. If a person values freedom, that person must value life, for no one can live without freedom and no one can be free without life.

I am one with the Libyan people in their achievement of the liberation they have sought for so long. But I will never be one with savages, whether tyrants or freedom fighters. TSS