A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Friday, October 21, 2011

Juan Cole: Qadhafi Drank the Kool-Aid

Metaphors about Jim Jones and the People's Temple suicides back in 1978 may be lost on a lot of younger readers today, but Juan Cole goes there in an interesting metaphorical venture, and it's worth a read. Of course if the new leaders of Libya are right that at least 50,000 Libyans died this year, Qadhafi took a lot more people with him than Jim Jones. I don't totally embrace Juan's analogy, since it sounds as if Qadhafi did not intend to die but to keep fighting, but it's worth considering.

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