Gaddafi Essay

The person that I chose to represent Machiavelli’s ideas is Muammar Gaddafi. He is the longest serving head of state in the world next to Queen Elizabeth II. He is known for his controversial political strategy and his very unusual personality. Gaddafi is easily spotted in animal skins and colorful clothing. His name regularly pops up on lists of the worst dressed world leaders. Ronald Regan named him the â€Å"Mad Dog of the Middle East. † Muammar Gaddafi’s reputation ranges from a popular revolutionary to an international reject. Gaddafi graduated from the University of Libya then continued to pursue a British military education. While in Great Britain he began to devise a plan to overthrow the Libyan monarchy. In 1969, Libyan King Idris was overthrown by a small group of Gaddafi’s Junior military leaders. A year later, being inspired by Egyptian President Gamal Nasser, he decided to close US and British military bases and expel all Italians and Jews. While trying to enforce Islamic socialism, he banned alcoholic beverages and gambling and failed at trying to unite Libya with other countries. By the mid-1980s, he was widely regarded in the West as the principal financier of international terrorism. He was also accused by the United States of being responsible for direct control of the 1986 Berlin discotheque that killed three people and wounded more than 200, of whom a substantial number were U. S. servicemen. Gaddafi’s adopted daughter was killed in a bombing of Libya that was retaliation for the U. S. After that two Libyans were accused of placing a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded and killed 270 people, Gaddafi refused to give up the suspects to America or Britain. Gaddafi finally admitted responsibility for the attack in 2003 and paid more than $2. 7 billion to the families of the victims, initiating the end of Libya’s international isolation. Now in Machiavelli’s â€Å"The Qualities ofa Prince† the very first paragraph talks about how everything dealing with the government is viewed through a military lens. Machiavelli doesn’t believe that the prince is a man who is skilled in many disciplines, but he believes that the prince should own a responsibility to make sure that whatever he governs is stable. Gaddafi took responsibility for Libya by creating his own form of government called Jamahiriya, in which the nation is governed by the masses or local councils and he defended his government by saying, â€Å"There is no state with a democracy except Libya n the whole planet. Machiavelli also raises the question whether it is better to be loved than to be feared. In the twelfth paragraph he states â€Å"†¦ l say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel; nevertheless, he must take care not to misuse this mercy. † It is said that Gaddafi’s examples and though ts inspire the struggling troubled masses and haunts the ones doing the trouble. This is why he is loved by people of the world, but feared by the ruling cliques who know that his words and actions expose them for what they are.