Moammar Gaddafi ?

[Rowan]

What did he do that was so bad? This might be an obvious answer to some, but for someone who's not so interested with overseas politics etc, I'd like to know what exactly happened with him? I had done a little research but from what I could tell, I must have been viewing propaganda because its some sort of trend to just blame obama for everything wrong with the world and make him out to be some sort of tyrant. What the hell is wrong with people?

[Alpha]

Personally, I feel being the unelected leader of a state for over four decades is enough to say that he is bad. However he did seize power from a monarch, bloodlessly. But then implemented sharia law. His regime is probably responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, and he supported other revolutionaries who also killed people (they'd say nobly). Perspective is a hell of a drug. You could say he was just an anti-imperialist and that those actions most would consider "bad" could be outweighed by his struggle against colonialism. However given that any such struggle typically itself limits personal freedoms (e.g. it all but killed the use of French in Syria by disallowing people from teaching or speaking it)... well draw your own conclusions.

For detail: Human rights in Libya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In sum: one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. But this freedom fighter-cum-terrorist also controlled a lot of oil. Can't have him pushing up the price of that economic lubricant...

[Walter Sobchak]

One of the greatest jokes about Qaddafi, which I am probably mangling, is "Leader of the country for forty years and he never got promoted past Colonel?"

Wikipedia is as good a start as any, but he is missed because he was the last great eccentric dictator. Kim Jong-un is merely parroting his father and grandfather. Qaddafi had a team of white blonde female bodyguards and wore a blanket in public. He even died more interestingly than someone like Saddam Hussein.