In the spring of 2011, as NATO missiles began to fall on Libyan soil, Muammar Gaddafi did something few expected: he reached out to the man he called “our son.”
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By April, the “Brother Leader” was cornered. His military was being dismantled from the air, and his decades-long grip on power was slipping. In a desperate attempt to appeal to the humanity and the African heritage of the American President, Gaddafi penned a personal, three-page letter to Barack Obama.
The letter, which was dismissed by the White House almost as soon as it arrived, serves as a haunting historical artifact. It captures a dictator’s transition from defiance to desperation, reminding the West of the cooperation he had offered just years prior.
The Full Letter: To Our Son, Barack Hussein Obama
Below is the full text of the letter sent by Muammar Gaddafi on April 5, 2011:
To our son, the honorable Mr. Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States of America.
I say to you, to our son, as I have said before, that even if Libya and the United States of America enter into a war, God forbid, you will always remain a son to me and I still have all the love for you. I do not want to change the image I have of you.
I say to you that the Libyan people are all with me and are ready to die for me—men, women, and even children. We are fighting against Al-Qaeda, which calls itself the Islamic Maghreb. These are armed gangs that came from abroad to destroy our country and our stability.
Our son, I ask you: Why is NATO attacking Libya? Why are you destroying our infrastructure? Why are you killing our children? We are a small nation that has always sought friendship with the United States. We gave up our nuclear program, we paid compensation for the past, and we opened our doors to your companies.
I ask you to look at the facts on the ground, not the lies of the media. If you find that the Libyan people are not with me, then I will step down. But I know they love me.
You are a man who has the courage to change the course of history. You can stop this war. You can save the lives of the Libyan people. Do not let the history books say that Obama destroyed a peaceful African nation that was seeking to build a future for its people.
Regardless of what happens, you will always remain my son. I still pray to God that you remain the President of the United States. We hope that you will win the next election.
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Muammar Gaddafi Leader of the Revolution
Why the White House Rejected It
The response from the Obama administration was cold and immediate. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that the administration was not looking for letters, but for “actions”—specifically a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Gaddafi’s forces from the cities they had besieged.
The tragedy of the letter lies in its timing. For Gaddafi, it was an appeal to a “son” based on his own support for the U.S. after 9/11 and his voluntary disarmament in 2003. For Obama, it was the rambling of a man who had just threatened to hunt his own people down “like rats.”
The Consequences of Silence
Because the letter was ignored and diplomacy was set aside in favor of “regime change,” the result was a vacuum that remains unfilled to this day.
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The Day After: Obama would later admit that failing to plan for the “day after” Gaddafi was his greatest mistake.
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The Proliferation of Arms: Without a negotiated exit, Gaddafi’s massive arsenals were looted, fueling wars in Mali, Syria, and across the Sahel.
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The Refugee Crisis: The “floodgates” Gaddafi warned he would open were indeed breached, leading to a decade of humanitarian tragedy in the Mediterranean.
The Legacy of the “Son”
Today, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi uses the memory of this letter and the subsequent “betrayal” by the West to bolster his political standing. He presents himself as the keeper of his father’s secrets—secrets that include exactly how much Western leaders benefited from Libyan money before they decided to pull the trigger.
The letter to Obama remains a testament to a missed opportunity or a necessary rejection, depending on who is telling the history. But for the people of Libya, who have lived through fifteen years of chaos since it was written, the words on that page represent the last moment before their state truly vanished.