Friday, February 25, 2011

Sadat on Qadaffi, 1970

Here is an early character observation about Muammar Qadaffi, the young dictator of Libya, who was at the time of the event described herein, only 28 years old.


(From page 201 of Anwar Sadat's autobiography, In Search of Identity) :

"In September 1970 (Egyptian President) Nasser convened an Arab Summit Conference in Cairo to put an end to the September 1970 massacre--the showdown between King Hussein of Jordan and the Palestinian resistance forces. King Hussein had decied to liquidate those forces and so fought them ruthlessly. A massacre, in the full sense of the term, took place. Nasser could not, of course, sit idly by. He convened that conference in Cairo...and it was attended by all the Arab kings and presidents...
"Muammar al-Qaddafi was there. He was an eye-catching character, with a revolver that never left his belt. He attacked King Hussein constantly, describing him as a madman who should be confined to a lunatic asylum; until then I had put his attacks down to overenthusiasm and youthful impetuosity.
"It (the Arab Summit Conference) was...very nerve-racking, not because of King Hussein's participation but because of the off-stage conduct of both Qadaffi and Yasir Arafat."

What's curious to me about this situation is that Qadaffi was attacking King Hussein as "a madman who should be confined to a lunatic asylum." I guess it takes one to know one.

Glass Chimera

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