The following commentary by Col. Mu'ammar Qaddafi was published in a Libyan newspaper as a poem on 5 April 2011 and translated by Professor Sam Hamod.

Recollections of My Life: Col. Mu’ummar Qaddafi, The Leader of the Revolution. April 5, 2011.


In the name of Allah,
the beneficent, the merciful..

for 40 years, or was it longer,
I can’t remember, I did all I could
to give people houses, hospitals, schools,
and when they were hungry, I gave them food,
I even made Benghazi into farmland from the desert,
I stood up to attacks from that cowboy Reagan, when
he killed my adopted orphaned daughter,
he was trying to kill me, instead he killed that poor innocent child,
then I helped my brothers and sisters from Africa
with money for the African Union, did all I could to
help people understand the concept of real democracy, where
people’s committees ran our country, but that was never enough,
as some told me, even people who had 10 room homes, new
suits and furniture, were never satisfied, as selfish as they were
they wanted more, and they told Americans and other visitors,
they needed “democracy,” and “freedom,” never realizing
it was a cut throat system, where the biggest dog eats the rest,
but they were enchanted with those words, never realizing
that in America, there was no free medicine, no free hospitals, no
free housing, no free education and no free food,except when people had to beg or go to long lines to get soup,
no, no matter what I did, it was never enough for some, but
for others,
they knew I was the son of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the
only true Arab and Muslim leader we’ve had since Salah’ a’ Deen,
when he claimed the Suez Canal for his people, as I claimed Libya, for my people,
it was his footsteps I tried to follow, to keep my people free
from colonial domination—from thieves who would steal from us—

now, I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away
the freedom of our country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and replace it
with American style thievery, called “capitalism,” but all of us
in the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the people suffer,
so, there is no alternative for me,
I must make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die
by following his path,
the path that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even allowed us
to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters to work
here with us, in the Libyan Jammohouriyah,

I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that,
to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all
my children, then so be it.

let this testament be my voice to the world,
that I stood up to crusader attacks of NATO, stood up to cruelty,
stood up to betrayal, stood up the West and its colonialist ambitions, and that I stood with my African brothers, my
true Arab and Muslim brothers, as a beacon of light, when
others were building castles, I lived in a modest house, and in a tent,
I never forgot my youth in Sirte,
I did not spend our national treasury foolishly,
and like Salah’a’deen, our great Muslim leader, who
rescued Jerusalem for Islam,
I took little for myself…

in the West,
some have called me “mad,” “crazy,”
but they know the truth
but continue to lie, they know that our land is independent and free, not in the colonial grip,
that my vision, my path, is,
and has been clear and for my people
and that I will fight to my last breath
to keep us free,
may Allah almighty help us to remain faithful and free