Like millions, if not billions, around the world, I have followed the recent swell of democratic revolution in the Middle East and North Africa with a fevered intensity characterised by a combination of hope and horror.
After remaining glued to Al Jazeera English for the 18 days of the January 25th Uprising, which ended the 30-year reign of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, both that hope and that horror have peaked this week, when the barking mad mass murderer currently running Libya chose to escalate his own tyranny to new heights by killing untold scores of his own people.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, as I'll refer to him for consistency's sake, is a man of many names. Among them are Qadhafi, Kaddafi, Gathafi, and Qaddafi. Even a casual observer might notice they all suck. Perhaps because he sucks. Perhaps he should change his name to Bigsuckymeanjerkface. Perhaps that would suck less. Perhaps not.
Not having payed particularly close attention to Libya during the past month or two of rolling rebellions across the Arab world, I was caught relatively unaware when I happened to be watching CNN at a friend's and heard breaking news that two Libyan fighter pilots had done the right thing by defecting to Malta rather than attack unarmed civilian protesters in the streets of Tripoli.
Later, I heard tell that another pilot had ejected from his plane to avoid similar orders and that several more pilots were burned—potentially alive—for making the mistake of refusing their orders on land.
Of course, Crazy Colonel Gaddafi's decision to shut down nearly all media and communication in the country, with the exception of state channels, has meant that much of the news the world receives about the situation has been in the form of eye-witness accounts and shaky Youtube videos. So, it hasn't been completely clear which stories to believe. Many stories have gotten through though nonetheless, and the average imagination is more than capable of filling in the blanks.
What do we know—I think—is that not all Gaddafi's air force refused the order to bombard civilians with high-caliber machine guns and, from the sounds of it, bombs as well. We know that Gaddafi's forces are heavily supplemented by foreign mercenaries, mostly North African, roaming from house to house in yellow hardhats butchering Libyans at will and raining bullets down on them from rooftops. This is what remains of Gaddafi's Libya.
We also know the picture is much brighter outside of the capital, with large swaths of the country under the control of the opposition, as well as significant segments of the military, government, and foreign service breaking ranks with the regime.
Checkpoints and neighbourhood watches are being set up in the Egyptian model, and graffiti is sprouting up across the east, welcoming visitors to "New Libya" or "Free Libya". The tribal and religious divides that Gaddafi insists would tear the nation asunder were it not for his expert leadership are so far nowhere to be seen. Only shortness of supplies and manpower appears to concern newly freed Libyans, and that their comrades' deaths should not be in vain.
But we know something else too: they've got him on the ropes. They've got them all on the ropes. Right now. Today. Maybe tomorrow, but soon.
As of Thursday evening, according to Reuters, "anti-government militias" were in control of Zuara, 120 km to the west of Tripoli, with opposition forces controlling Misrata, 200 to the east of Tripoli.
In case you haven't been following along, Tripoli is where Gaddafi is holed up, originally in a bombed-out (by Reagan) military base but now in utter hiding.
Why? How? What happened to one of the most successful dictators in modern history? What happened to his 42-year rule that it could be on the brink of being brought down so abruptly? What happened?
Martyrs happened. Endless graves, unfathomable suffering. True martyrs. Not the kind who kill, the kind who die. Not the kind who blow people up, the kind who light themselves on fire, as Tarek Bouaziz did in Tunisia, sparking a new kind of resistance in the Arab world.
That one act of sacrifice and the countless since are a fire that will not and cannot be extinguished. Every bullet fired, every bomb dropped, every body piled up is connected, impervious, and unbearably heavy.
The burden of Gaddafi's martyrs will certainly be too much to for him to bear, but it is not his burden alone. Those same martyrs weigh on the rulers Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Palestine, Israel, even Saudi Arabia.
Every single corpse, every wound that is sustained in the name of democracy around the world is a burden on all dictators, all monarchs, all with questionable democratic mandates and corrupt or totalitarian tendencies. All should tremble.
Whether the US, Israel, or the West likes it or not, Arabs WILL have democracy. And while those who oppose that basic right may squirm and struggle against the grip of this vast sea of quicksand, such futility will only hasten the inevitable.
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