When waves of the Arab spring swept Libyan shores and people took to the streets, they knew they were facing a different kind of enemy. Granted, citizens in other countries of the region were also facing dictatorial regimes with similar intentions. However, what is vividly different in the case of Libya is that this was not your typical everyday dictator but rather a particularly dangerous combination of a ruthless and devious character with a sick megalomaniac mind and plenty of money to throw around. True to his nature and Machiavellian instincts for staying in power, Gaddafi quickly resorted to violence in answer to the initially peaceful calls for change, enlisting paid mercenaries and forced conscripts to abort and kill the revolution. This is not surprising from a regime which is notoriously known to speak only one language, that of medieval terror. Soon enough, thousands of innocent civilians including children, fell victims to indiscriminate shelling by high-claiber weaponry designed for mechanized armies. Thousands others have been arrested and tortured and thousands others still have fled their homes, leaving behind destroyed property and in some cases poisoned water wells. Just this past week, award-winning photojournalists Tim Etherington and Chris Hondros who were documenting the resistance on the streets of Misrata, themselves fell victims to Gaddafi's terror. Sadly enough, before dying, Tim vividly captured the situation on the ground. In his last tweet, he informed of "indiscriminate shelling in Misrata and no sign of Nato".
Meanwhile, no tricks under the hat were spared by Gaddafi to discredit the revolution confronting him. At times, he was claiming the whole thing was about a bunch of drugged kids and at others alleging he was fighting dangerous elements of Al-Qaeda. Neither trick had a grain of crediblity. As it turned out, these were everyday citizens the regime was facing, students, teachers, lawyers, doctors and civil servants. As many fell victims to Gaddafi's lethal gun power, others resorted to defending themselves with whatever they could find including makeshift arms, cooking gas bottles and the occasional stick. A youngster was reportedly rushing to the front with his bare hands and the promise of a gun from a relative still hundreds of miles away. The bad news for Gaddafi & Sons is that Libyans seem to have lost the fear implanted by this dark regime of terror over the course of 42 years. They have had enough of the heavy-handed and backward rule, which even after four long decades, is showing no sign of releasing its grip. In a series of emotional tweets from his hospital bed just before he succumbed to complications to his wounds, Khalid Alghirani, a freedom fighter and proud father from the remote mountain region of Zintan could not have made it more clear. He wrote: "We will not give up or give in. It's not about life anymore. It's about human dignity and rights."
The citizen revolution in Libya may be still in its infancy and in the face of a vicious and bloody regime, may seem quite vulnerable. But so was also the American revolution of 1776. The continental army led then by George Washington started as a collection of simple and untrained citizens armed only by their declaration of independence and finding themselves fighting an uphill battle against a much more powerful army. At some point, they enlisted the help of a Prussian general to teach them the art and discipline of waging a war and they later accepted the support of a foreign nation, France, to achieve their victory. In the end, they won and went on to create a world power. The revolution in Libya is facing similar challenges. Its fate will understandably be influenced by regional and international politics, but first and foremost, it will be sealed by the resolve and unity of its own people.
