Photo on right shows underground drainage pipes where Kaddafy was hiding when he was captured by Libyan rebels. Photo on left shows the hole where US troops captured Saddam Hussein.
I correctly surmised that Kaddafy's fate would be similar to that of Saddam Hussein's, and that he would perhaps be captured or die crawling out from an underground hole, and I wasn't far wrong (see). Saddam crawled out of a spider hole; and Kaddafy either crawled out of or was dragged from an underground drain pipe in Sirte. But there are other eerie parallels to their capture and deaths that may prefigure for post-Kaddafy Libya the same deadly chaos that engulfed post-Saddam Iraq but without the presence of US/coalition forces to temper it and stop it. Here is what I mean:
Aside from the no fly zone attacks on Libya commencing on March 19th, the 8th anniversary of the Shocking and Awe-ing of Baghdad by US warplanes, Kaddafy was captured and died in his hometown of Sirte 8 months after the start of the Libyan Spring uprising; 8 is the exact number of months separating Shock and Awe from Saddam's capture in his home town of Tirkrit, hence:
March 19, 2003 (beginning of Iraq War) to December 13, 2003 (Saddam's capture) = 269 days, or 8 months and 28 days.
February 15, 2011 (start of Libyan protests) to October 20, 2011 (Kaddafy's capture and death) = 274 days, or 8 months and 24 days.
Moreover, Saddam and Kaddafy lived the exact same number of years dying at age 69, hence:
April 28, 1937 (Saddam's birth) to December 30, 2006 (his death) = 69 years, 8 months, 2 days.
June 7, 1942 (Kaddafy's birth) to October 20, 2011 (his death) = 69 years, 4 months and 13 days.
Saddam and Kaddafy were two brutal, repressive Arab dictators who were deposed with the help of Western forces, then killed by their own people. They both represent the end of an era that began with Nasser of Egypt: the era of pan-Arab nationalism, a race based secular, socialist ideology driven by Jew hatred similar to Nazism aiming at the reunification, and worldwide triumph, of the Arab (master) race. Both Saddam and Kaddafy aspired to replace Nasser as the leader of the Arab world and exceed him by becoming the Adolf Hitler of the region unifying it under their rule, destroying Israel and then conquering the world. Both failed miserably in fulfilling their imagined destinies and are now dead. But now replacing pan-Arabism is the menace of pan-Islamism hell bent on restoring the Moslem caliphate and fulfilling Islam's imagined destiny of a one world Moslem state as envisioned by the warlord prophet Mohammed.
Also see
Postscript I: Irony of Ironies
When Kaddafy saw Saddam crawling out of the spider hole because of the game he played with WMD he said to himself, "That isn't going to be me." Then playing it safe he then proceeded to give up his nuclear technology to the US. If he hadn't he would have avoided Saddam's fate and still been master of Libya.
Indeed, if George Bush hadn't put the fear of God in Kaddafy by deposing and then capturing Saddam he would now be the nuclear armed tyrant of Libyia putting down the rebellion with relative impunity. Much of the credit for Libya's liberation from Kaddafy must go to George Bush and the Iraq War.
One other irony worth mentioning. After his meeting with Obama at the G8 Summit in 2009 Kaddafy in a letter to Obama called him affectionately his "son" and said that he was "a blessing to the Moslem people." Kaddafy, by the way, met with Obama's mentor Rev. Wright and Black Moslem leader Louis Farrakan in 1984 in Tripoli. Obama is now in Farrakan's crosshairs, with Wright most likely calling down curses on him.
*BTW, today we saw Obama once again playing the claim game (taking credit for the achievements of another president) and taking credit for our troops leaving Iraq-when the credit, in fact, belongs to George Bush who closed the deal on troop withdrawal with al-Maliki back in December 2008.