Understanding Qaddafi and his “politics of contradiction”

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Understanding Qaddafi and his “politics of contradiction”
Some demonstrators outside the Libyan embassy in Berlin held photos of those purportedly slain in the recent violence in Libya. Getty Images/Sean Gallup
Understanding Qaddafi and his “politics of contradiction”
Some demonstrators outside the Libyan embassy in Berlin held photos of those purportedly slain in the recent violence in Libya. Getty Images/Sean Gallup

Understanding Qaddafi and his “politics of contradiction”

By
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Colonel Muammar Qaddafi addressed the Libyan public in a rambling, defiant speech today. In it he vowed not to step down and said he’d die a martyr. Colonel Qaddafi also blamed the protesters’ actions on hallucinogenic drugs and threatened them with severe punishment. To help us parse Colonel Qaddafi’s address and his decades-long grip on Libya is Mansour El-Kikhia, chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography at the University of Texas-San Antonio, and author of the book Libya’s Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction.