Defiant Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called on his supporters Tuesday to "secure Libya's streets" and vowed to "cleanse Libya house by house" if anti-government protesters do not surrender.In a rambling and furious hour-long speech broadcast on state television, Gadhafi dismissed widespread reports of a violent crackdown on protesters demanding his ouster and insisted he would not relinquish control of his country's "revolution.""Revolution means sacrifice, a continuous sacrifice until the end of one's life," Gadhafi said in Tripoli, the capital, standing in front of what appeared to be a bombed-out compound, the site of a U.S. airstrike in 1986. "I will not leave the country. I will die as a martyr." Security forces loyal to Gadhafi have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. Brandishing a copy of his so-called Green Book of decrees he wrote in the early years of his ironclad rule, Gadhafi also claimed the protesters deserve a death sentence.
Needless to say, if the protestors' cause needed any more merit, Gadhafi's words have provided it. Aside from emphasizing the corrupt and unjust nature of his rule, Gadhafi's tirade demonstrates that democracy is long overdue in Libya. While he will likely continue to ramble about being a "martyr," the reality is that his words are nothing more than the pathetic and desperate rant of a corrupt tyrant hopefully being brought to his knees by the power of the people.
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