Gaddafi and the spectre of Piazza Loreto

The gruesome images of the last minutes of Gaddafi's life are disturbing.
Surely it would have been nice to see Gaddafi treated like a prisoner of war and handed over to the hague to face justice and ultimately exiled to some pacific island to spend the last days of his life.
I have absolutely no reservations on the attack on his convoy by NATO. It is time to call a spade a spade. It was an imperitive not to let him escape and continue stirring trouble with the money he robbed from his country. It was a just war fought to topple a tyrant. I have no qualms on the fact that the UN security council resolution was interpreted in this way. Otherwise Gaddafi would still be in power.
The latest reports suggest that Gaddafi did manage to escape the bombardment and that he was killed after being captured alive. He ended his life stripped out of his humanity. Ultimately he was not an alien or a monster but a human being capable of monstrous acts.
Those who killed him made a deliberate choice when they executed him. It was the choice made in every bloody revolution since the English Civil War down to the execution of Ceaucescu. And lets not forget the executions committed by some of the heroes of the left like Che Guevera. The tyrant must die, so goes the dynamic of all revolutions of the modern era. It was the same choice on which post nazi fascist Europe is also build. I personally cringe at the faded images of piazza loreto where Mussolini was hanged by the partigiani (the same heroes who sang bella ciao).
Yes I must say that a principle of humanity has been violated again in the name of freedom. But probably the death of the tyrant is the only possible closure for a revolution provoked by unspeakable acts of brutality.
But still I have to say that from day one I felt that it had to end this way. Libya was destined to be the Romania of the Arab spring and Gaddafi seemed destined to follow the fate of Mussolini...And lets not forget that despite the hiccups Italy and Romania are now liberal democracies where people have a degree of freedom they completely lacked when they were governed by tyrants.
I do not feel any pity for a dictator who inflicted so much suffering. I can't help it. No I have no time for the human rights of Gaddafi, Bin Laden and Bashir Assad.
Coincidentally i ve been re-reading (for the third time) the Autumn of the Patriarch -the surreal story of a bizarre dictator who outlived generations of his subjects, who watched twice the passing of the comet, who always lived under the illusion that he was loved by the people as his security forces executed the parrots who repeated what the people had been murmuring in their private life. The patriarch in the story even managed to cheat death by coming back from the realm of the dead to assassinate those celebrating the death of his double.
The death of the tyrant is the only certainity for people who lived in constant fear. As long as he lived they would have feared his return. These were people whose childhood memories are filled with gruesome images of people hanged on public television.
The only regret I harbour is that Gaddafi did not see the celebrations after his death in Tripoli. He would have lost any illusion that the people loved him. The only other regret is that dead people do not speak and he will not be able to reveal anything about his accomplices in a trial. Neither will he reveal anything about the western leaders who befriended him. But we did not need to put Gaddafi on trial to learn of these friendships. Moreover I doubt whether he would have ever said anything credible except the same mad rhetoric we have already heard. Whatever he would have said in a court of law would have been dismissed as the delerious rants of a delusional maniac. He would have simply been awarded the honour of a platform which he did not deserve.
The gruesome images of humiliation had at least one useful purpose; that of instilling terror in despots who up till a year ago thought of themselves as immortal.
I may well express my politically correct wish that next time round Bashir Assad is captured and brought to trial. But lets not forget that the same Russians who are now defending Gaddafi's human rights and questioning the legality of his execution are giving Assad a licence to kill his own people...perhaps i am not so sincere in auguring Assad a fair trial...what is sure is that i would like to see the face of assad while watching those stomach revolting images from Sirte.