Qadaffi’s dead, Jerry Pournelle notes, ignominiously shot down while pleading for his life:
So far as I know they didn’t take the body out and hang it upside down in a public square, but much of this is reminiscent of the death of Benito Mussolini — who was, oddly enough, the founder of the nation of Libya. Libya didn’t exist until the Italians formed it from the provinces of Tripolitania , Cyrenaica, and various interior Berber, Tuareg, and other tribal groups in the province of Fezzan. The Italian marshal charged with unification was given carte blanche, and the unification wars were brutal. Under Mussolini the trains ran on time — actually there weren’t trains, but a Coast Road was built from Tripoli to the Egyptian border, modern factories such as a Fiat plant were built, and there were numerous showpiece public works such as cathedrals and the Marble Arch commemorating unification. Jewish enterprises thrived.
After World War II a Tripolitanian emir was proclaimed king of Libya. Foreign developers were invited in. The US built an important base and some of infrastructure needed to operate it. The king was overthrown by Colonel Qadaffi, who ruled until the Arab Spring uprisings and consequent NATO-backed rebellion. The US lost a significant imperial asset, Wheelus AFB in Libya, which was not only a primary SAC base but a major staging area for any US regional forces. US-Libyan relations in the era of Qadaffi have been a roller coaster. We ended by supporting and partly financing the rebellion that killed him.