Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi “Mad Dog of the Middle East”

[L. Coyote]

Who cares if he lives in North Africa???

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Through the US Media Lens Darkly
By Robert Parry
March 18, 2011 = http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/031811.html

As Americans turn to their news media to make sense of the upheavals in the Middle East, it’s worth remembering that the bias of the mainstream U.S. press corps is most powerful when covering a Washington-designated villain, especially if he happens to be Muslim.
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In that case, all uncertainty about some aspect of his villainy is discarded. Evidence in serious dispute is stated as flat fact. Readers are expected to share this unquestioned belief about the story’s frame – and that usually helps manufacture consent behind some desired government action or policy.

At such moments, it’s also hard to contest the conventional wisdom. To do so will guarantee that you’ll be treated as some kook or pariah. It won’t even matter if you’re vindicated in the long run. You’ll still be remembered as some weirdo who was out of step.

And those who push the misguided consensus will mostly go on to bigger and better things, as people who have proved their worth even if they got it all wrong. Such is the way the national U.S. political/media system now works – or some might say doesn’t work.

Perhaps the most costly recent example of this pattern was the Official Certainty about Iraq’s WMD in 2002-03. With only a few exceptions, the major U.S. news media, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, bought into the Bush administration’s WMD propaganda, partly because Saddam Hussein was so unsavory that no one wanted to be dubbed a “Saddam apologist.”

When Iraq’s WMD turned out to be a mirage, there was almost no accountability at senior levels of the U.S. news media.

Washington Post’s editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, who repeatedly reported Iraq’s WMD as “flat fact,” is still in the same job eight years later; Bill Keller, who penned an influential article called “The I-Can’t-Believe-I’m-a-Hawk Club,” got promoted to New York Times executive editor after the Iraq-WMD claims exploded leaving egg on the faces of him and his fellow club members.

So, now as Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi reprises his old role as “mad dog of the Middle East,” ...........

[pinboy3niner]

1. Sometimes the 'darkly' view of the MSM can be correct:

Libyan Oil Buys Allies for Qaddafi

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: March 15, 2011

...


But Colonel Qaddafi’s involvement in sub-Saharan Africa, said J. Peter Pham, editor of the Journal of the Middle East and Africa, has been “nothing short of catastrophic.”

His meddling in Sudan’s Darfur region and arming of Arab militias there helped lead to the rise of the notorious janjaweed, armed groups that have terrorized civilians for years. His support of the former strongman Charles Taylor in Liberia added to the bloodshed and mayhem in that country. His backing of various rebel factions across the Sahara has destabilized Mali, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and others, allowing Al Qaeda to grab a foothold in the vast, unpatrolled deserts.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he recruited thousands of Africans into his Islamic Legion, an experimental Muslim army that failed on the battlefield in places like Chad and then sent so many young men drifting back to their home countries embittered — and heavily armed.

The various African wars that Colonel Qaddafi helped stir up “took hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions, and their ripple effects continue to this day,” Mr. Pham said.

Mr. Sissouma’s response to such criticism: “Nobody’s an angel.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/africa/16mali.html

It's hard to see how anyone can be an apologist for Gaddafi. Even his reputed 'social reforms' in sub-Saharan Africa appear to have been disastrous.

[meow mix]

2. his chevron friends were treated very well however...

right up to the end.

ill be so glad to see him go and have a lot of optimism for the new govt. ty mr president and UN. and thanks to the democratic party for supporting this to.

[RagAss]

3. This is a Strongman...