The Ceausescu Parallel

The murder of the former Libyan dictator Mu'ammar Gaddafi isn't a historically unprecedented event.

The Arab Spring has in many political circles been compared and contrasted to the various revolutionary events in the Eastern European Warsaw Pact satellite states in 1989 - which corresponded with the breakup and fall of the Soviet Union. When one looks at such a comparison one does find a very interesting parallel. Whilst the Arab Spring has shown two prominent Arab autocrats (relatively) peacefully capitulate to popular opposition it has also shown another willing to bomb and plunge his country into war and violence in order to maintain his hold on power. I am of course referring to Libya and Colonel Gaddafi whose murder at the hands of rebel forces shares many similarities to the murder of Nicolae Ceausescu at the end of the Romanian Revolution in 1989, which was the bloodiest of the 1989 Revolutions given Ceausescu's unrelenting campaign of violent exploits and extortion of the Romanian people under the hands of his brutal and sadistic Securitate secret police.

Whilst following his capture by angry mobs of Romanians who had lived in a state of abjection for decades under his rule Ceausescu was temporarily held in a tank before him and his wife Elena were given a show trial and charged with genocide and then executed on Christmas Day 1989. Because of this rushed and sloppy process it was never learned how Ceausescu had ruled Romania, however the sheer abjection and state of beggary the Romanian people had been subject too quickly became evident, as the festering and squalid conditions of the countries orphanages were uncovered in a manner reminiscent to the liberation of concentration camps following the defeat of the Third Reich in 1945. This was in stark contrast to how richly the Ceausescu's lived, a prime example of their overindulgence was the fact that even their private nuclear fallout shelter was marble floored.

The Libyan people lived in similar abjection, with the Gaddafi family squandering the countries wealth and resources on ensuring it remained the dominant authority in the country, at the expense of not substantially developing the states infrastructure. The widespread fervour and enthusiasm the rebels displayed which has led to the murder of Gaddafi upon his capture shows that this murder was clearly an ill thought out impulse that came from years of pent up rage as a result of being trodden down upon by such a brute megalomaniac. It was a controversial action and may prove to be a mistake, as now all hopes of a trial to charge and indict him and bring reparations and justice where possible for his many crimes and actions throughout the past 42 years have been dashed.

The actions of the Romanian people in deposing Ceausescu is also inextricably tied with Saddam Hussein's rule of Iraq. In a 1990 interview with CNN's Diane Sawyer it was clear that the brutal and violent overthrow of Ceausescu resonated a lot with the Iraqi dictator. He therefore vowed that he would not follow the same fate. And the amount of violence and cruelty and sheer brutality he exerted on the Iraqi people until the end of his rule in 2003 showed that he was willing to do anything to stay true to his word. In the same year as that interview Iraq invaded Kuwait. This was followed up in 1991 by the US led military coalition attacking Iraq through large scale aerial bombing and driving Iraqi forces out of Kuwait and engaging them in a decisive 100 hour ground war that led on to the February 28th ceasefire which was put into place shortly after the defeated and demoralized Iraqi Army limped back over the Kuwaiti border. Shortly afterwards a widespread uprising in the Shi'a south spread against Saddam's rule (in a strikingly similar manner to eastern Libya revolting against Gaddafi's rule earlier this year). Around the time this was taking place coalition forces granted Iraq the use of some of its remaining helicopters under the impression that they would be used to transport necessities since the countries infrastructure had been crippled by coalition air strikes. However the helicopters were instead utilized by the Saddam's loyalist Republican Guard forces to put down the revolt killing over 100,000 people. Their bodies dumped in mass graves which are still being found and uncovered throughout the south of Iraq to the present day, a clear testament to Saddam's unrelenting subversion and brutality.

In a manner similar to how the UN mandated no fly zones were executed over Libya to prevent Gaddafi strafing the inhabitants of Benghazi no fly zones had been previously put in place above southern Iraq and Northern Iraqi Kurdistan to prevent Saddam's forces from continuing to afflict their genocidal wrath on the Kurds and Shi'a respectively.

The UN mandated no fly zones over Libya led on to the NATO forces gradually aiding the rebels through tactical air strikes in their quest to dismantle Gaddafi's regime. Up the point of the said incident in Sirte, where French jets and pilot-less American drones attacked Gaddafi's loyalist convoy as it attempted to flee south, the NATO forces at the time weren't aware Gaddafi was in the convoy but nonetheless the strike did heavily contribute to his final capture.

This UN intervention didn't directly kill Gaddafi, the Libyan people did, out of the clear rage and humiliation which stemmed from decades of needless repression at the hands of this man. He was killed in manner similar to that of Ceausescu, and the relief and realization that he is gone and can never again instigate brute violence on his countrymen is something that resonating with the majority of Libyans. And while they may not have learned from Romania 22 years ago the United Nations Security Council has learned from Iraq 20 years ago. In respect to the fact (to paraphrase John F. Kennedy) that dictators who make peaceful revolution impossible make such violent revolution and insurrection inevitable.

A potential massacre has therefore been prevented in Libya since the Colonel as he was known was forcibly deprived of his ability to afflict death and destruction upon the very country and people he presided over.