Moammar Gadhafi

This post may upset some people. The United States has openly admitted to torturing it's enemies. How are Bush and Obama any different that Gadhafi? He tortured people and lived extravagently while the people of Libya were highly controlled.

Gadhafi was a horrible person who believed his own lies and he did terrible things to innocent people. We do not know how many people he had tortured or killed and never will. We will know how bad he was because whatever we discover, it will be worse. He was still human, he was still an emotional, self aware being. He was still human.

I saw the video of him in his last minutes, he was bloodied, confused and being driven around on the hood of a truck for all to see. They did not rip his eyes out, cut off his nose, tongue, eyes of more delicate parts. They shot him in the head. He was not tortured as he had done to so many others, beaten; but, not truly tortured, not the really bad stuff that takes days.

As I saw him being manhandled and carried away from the truck, as he wiped the blood from his face and you could tell he was alive, he looked confused. I bet he was. He did not hate Libya and he loved Libyans, he just believed his was the only way. As sick as it is he believed he was doing what was best for Libya. He was willing to die for it, he had hundred of millions and could have left the country; but, he didn't because he believed he was supposed to be in charge to protect the country from westerners.

I never liked the man, he was a horrible person and I don't seek to justify anything he did, I am pacifist and cannot justify anything he did nor would I even try. Yet, he was still a person, he was still a bundle of emotions and urges. He still felt pain and greed and loss and emptiness and fear and joy and love and anger. All the emotions you feel, he felt. The problem was that he either did not care what others felt or thought they did not feel the same emotions as he did. God made us all in his image, we are all as complex and complete as each other.

As I watched him being walked down the street, I wondered if he understood what he had done to others. I wondered if he understood that they felt even greater pain than he was feeling. I wondered if he finally understood and felt regret for having treated others so poorly and having forgot their humanity and pain. If he did then he would felt regret and guilt and we cannot find grace, we cannot find forgiveness in our own hearts until we feel guilt and regret and are then capable of knowing forgiveness. The innocent cannot understand grace, the guilty cannot understand it, only those who are saved can be guilty and understand innocence because they know they are not. That is salvation.

Did Gadhafi finally know his guilt, if so then we should pray for his soul. We all sin; but, it is through guilt that we find salvation and it is only found in grace. I wish him grace for he will need a lot of it, I cannot imagine living with such guilt for eternity, I could not wish that on any self-aware being. I cannot only wish salvation for all, for we are all human and flawed, imperfect.