"Even to Libyans familiar with Muammar Gaddafi's oratory style, his speech last night surprised many of those watching. While the logic was classic Gaddafi, the tone was one none of us had heard before. The man was livid. Gaddafi had managed to keep his cool even when the US bombed Tripoli in April 1986 and destroyed his home at the Bab al-Aziziya barracks. But on 22 February, speaking to a nation that had finally called his bluff on the power of the people, he was clearly and visibly distressed.
His speech vacillated between angry threats, sarcasm, wounded pride, delusions of grandeur and back again. A carefully scripted intervention by an assistant allowed Gaddafi to fall back on familiar eccentricity – the broadcast had apparently been briefly interrupted and the nation had missed a few lines of poetry Gaddafi had read, so he reread them. Libya was burning and Gaddafi was entertaining the people with poetry. Nero, anyone?"
By Nahla Daoud | guardian.co.uk
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