As reports come in that NATO is bombing Gaddafi’s compound, we don’t even know where he is. Everything is smoke and mirrors in Libya, as has been the case for my entire lifetime. I’m with Andrew Solomon. The truth has been a casualty in Libya for so long that it seems too much to expect any honest accounting of objective reality from there any time soon. I don’t know a single soul whom I trust both to understand Libya and to tell the truth about what they know. How can a country so long abused by propaganda and the insanity of Gaddafi’s Green Book be expected to act in a predictable, functional, and rational manner? Soloman expresses my feelings quite well with this:

The workings of the Qaddafi machine are shrouded in seven veils of obfuscation, and it is unlikely we will ever get the full story about what has gone on there, insofar as such a story is even knowable. Saying what will happen is an even dicier exercise; those who cannot know the past are destined to befuddlement, though things are looking pretty grim for the regime.

I don’t know that things are looking any better for the country. Can the victors equitably and peaceably share the spoils? I don’t have a goddamn clue, and anyone who tells you that they do is going out on a limb or simply lying to you.

0 0 votes
Article Rating