Gaddafi is not mad, just lost in translation

Said an ordinary Libyan: I think people who use abusive language find it hard to explain their point of view or find it hard to express themselves. It doesn't necessary mean they're stupid as I know someone who is very smart but swears a lot and I think its his upbringing etc.

Like English, Arabic can be whatever Gaddafi wants it to be. It is mostly a reflection on the state of his mind which he readily "communicates" to his people.

Gaddafi was quoted by the London Al-Hayat Arabic-language newspaper as saying that since Obama became President any dispute between Libya and the United States had vanished. "Now, ruling America is a black man from our continent," he explained, "an African from Arab descent, from Muslim descent, and this is something we never imagined – that from Reagan we would get to Barakeh (Arabic for Barack) Obama." He called Obama's presence in the White House "a major historical gain."

As the world leaders assign psychopathic attributes to Gaddafi they need to ask these questions: What kind of impression did Gaddafi's accent have on the masses? Did he sound like an uncouth village boy and did Hitler sound like a heavily dialectal hillbilly from the countryside? Or did they sound (in their own language) as erudite as Churchill and Menzies seemed to us?