Colonel Gaddafi in Rome

Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi has by all accounts caused quite a stir in Rome.

With his centre-Left opponents accusing him of giving Gaddafi a 'rock star's welcome', Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has stood in embarrassed silence and listened to the flamboyant dictator rant on a range of subjects.

His specialties include:

Speaking to students at La Sapienza, Gadaffi said the US wanted to “colonise the globe”, was not interested in people’s freedom and fought against anyone who “got in its way”.

Addressing terrorism, Gadaffi said terrorist actions were “to be condemned”, but that “the reason (behind it) is linked to the colonialism of the Islamic world by countries who profess Christianity”.

Terrorism was a “reaction” to this, he said.

Earlier on Thursday Gaddafi attacked the US in an address to the Italian senate, likening the US retaliatory bombing of his quarters in 1986, in which an adopted infant daughter was killed, to al-Qaeda’s attacks and claiming the invasion of Iraq had turned the country into “an arena for al-Qaeda”.

And:

President claims United States in Libya is like Al Qaeda. Praise for Berlusconi: “Could be Libya’s premier”

In an ambitious analogy with the days of the Roman empire, President Gheddafi went on to find justification for terrorism and dictatorships, launching a fierce attack on the United States. In short, he said that Saddam Hussein had been elected by the Iraqis. It was an internal matter so why had someone from outside decided to remove him from power? While claiming to firmly “condemn” terrorism, the president attempted to offer as an explanation for the phenomenon the need for “defence” against the encroachments of the western world. “They call people with guns and bombs terrorists but what can we call the powers that have intercontinental missiles? What is the difference between Bin Laden’s actions and Reagan’s attack on Libya in 1986? Wasn’t that terrorism?”

He also hit out at democracy and called the party system 'democracy's abortion', urging Italy to scrap its political parties.

He criticised colonialism, which is pretty much his party trick, saying:

Recalling Italy’s colonial occupation of Libya — over which Italy and Libya signed a landmark $5 billion dollar friendship accord in August in a bid to address grievances — Gadaffi said Libyans had “drunk from a bitter cup, with every Libyan family affected by the consequences, with victims either deported or killed”.

“Our aim is to prevent the colonialism of the past from being repeated,” he told La Sapienza students.

When he was questioned by students about the rights of immigrants in Libya, he replied:

Students questioned Gaddafi about immigrant rights in Libya, which has not signed the United Nations Refugee Convention, in the wake of a new Italian policy to intercept and return to the North African country migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, leaving Libya to deal with asylum requests.

“I agree with the need to respect rights, but we need to know who the political refugees are and how they can be recognised because a lot of information is wrong,” Gaddafi said.

“Are the millions who march from Africa towards the European Union political refugees? The Africans are starving, not political, they don’t practice politics, they don’t know about parties or elections,” he said.

Gaddafi said immigrants headed for Europe to “chase after resources that they believe have been taken away from them” by colonialist countries.

On illegal immigration, Gaddafi used a crude, yet effective image to make his point: “let the Italian government stop defending you from immigration. Let millions of people enter the country” and then “you will need a dictator to protect you”. He then added ironically: “let the human rights organisations find them jobs, treat them medically, and do everything else they need”. Irony again was not lacking when he said: “would you accept a million political refugees? If you would, it would be a great thing, I would help you, if you want a million Africans, who would then turn into two, twenty, fifty million, then I am with you”.

He seems to think that the G8 countries paying 'compensation' to Africa for the colonial period would solve Africa's problems and largely halt the immigration problem.

He fails to note, predictably, that we already pump billions every year into that benighted continent, and see very little return in the improvement of living conditions or cessation of illegal mass immigration.

All we do, in effect, is pay for the population to be doubled, tripled and quadrupled to unsustainable levels. The entire aid industry is like the welfare state on steroids, a safety net which has turned into a strong, sticky and binding web.

What about the fact that some areas of Africa knew the only periods of relative peace and good government they've ever had under the Union Flag?

As much as I dislike Gaddafi, at least he says what is on his mind - far more than most simpering Western leaders would ever do, a few notable exceptions aside.