Endgame in Tripoli
The bloodiest of the north African rebellions so far leaves hundreds dead
IT WAS vintage Muammar Qaddafi. After a blood-soaked week of unrest, Libya's leader delivered a rambling, hectoring, fist-pounding speech on February 22nd. He blasted the popular uprising that has left hundreds dead and torn much of the vast north African nation from his grasp as the work of drug addicts and agents of al-Qaeda and America. He shouted that he would never surrender and ordered his men to hunt these “greasy rats” from house to house, without mercy, and take what they wanted. Then he drove off in an electric golf buggy.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Endgame in Tripoli”
More from Briefing
The undoing of Roe v Wade has created a mighty political movement
The power of women with clipboards
Why this is South Africa’s most important election since 1994
It may force the country’s indecisive leader to make a fateful choice
Why America is vulnerable to a despot
Its democratic system is not as robust as it seems