Tunesia, Egyt and now Yemen: a domino effect in the Middle East?

Do you wear your countries [sic] uniform ?

No, he had some brains and therefore options.

Do you walk around the house in your country's uniform

reliving your glory days

you jumped at the chance to blow any officer

DAKAR, Senegal — Whether he is under siege or on the offensive, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is always surrounded by his female bodyguards, also known as his Amazonian guard. Or, sometimes, his revolutionary nuns.

Since the early 1970s, an eye-popping cadre of 30 women have shadowed and at times taken bullets for the man who is today, at 68, the Arab world's most senior dictator.

The women pledge oaths of loyalty to Gaddafi, including a vow of virginity, according to reports. The female bodyguards are not just for show. In 1998, one died and two were injured when Gaddafi was attacked.

It’s a dangerous job and yet for most of the four decades that they have stood by Gaddafi, they have seemed as much his statement on style and gender politics as his security detail.

Decked in 1990s-style camouflage, nail polish, thick mascara, and Nancy Sinatra warboots, the nuns flank this flamboyant world leader who packs Bedouin tents and home-tailored boubous whenever he travels abroad.

"Having female bodyguards is just one of his things," said Mohammed el Katiri, Libya analyst for the global risk think tank Eurasia Group. "It's difficult to give a rational explanation for it, apart from that he always likes to be seen as different."

the logic of the Arab spring is about popular sovereignty. The people power being displayed in the streets, on twitter and Facebook, is intended to sweep away impediments to the expression of the will of the people, mainly presidents for life. The Arab crowds are investing their hopes in a new era of parliamentarism, in elections and constitutions, in term limits and referendums, in the rule of law and the principle that governmental authority must derive from the people. It is not that they are John Stuart Mill liberals. The crowds have a communitarian aspect, and demands jobs and for free formation of labor unions and the right to bargain collectively form a key part of the protest movements. But such labor organizing is also seen by movement participants and part of the expression of the popular will.

That the movements have been so powerfully informed by this Rousseauan impulse helps explain their key demands and why they keep spreading. The progression is that they begin with a demand that the strong man step down. If they get that, they want a dissolution of old corrupt ruling parties and elites. They want parliamentary elections. They want term limits for the president and reduction of presidential powers. They want new constitutions, newly hammered out, and subject to national referendums. They want an end to corruption and croneyism. They aim for future governments to be rooted in the national will.

The progression is that they begin with a demand that the strong man step down. If they get that, they want a dissolution of old corrupt ruling parties and elites. They want parliamentary elections. They want term limits for the president and reduction of presidential powers. They want new constitutions, newly hammered out, and subject to national referendums. They want an end to corruption and croneyism. They aim for future governments to be rooted in the national will.

So why did the people of Iraq not welcome our troops as a liberation army and strew its path into Baghdad with flowers? There was no other way to get their strongman to step down. I thought they would do.

Actually, he IS a legitimate target.
As leader of his country, and as head of the military, taking him out is a legitimate act, IF we were involved in an actual war.

Since we arent, killing him shouldnt be an option.