In the spring of 2011, as NATO fighter jets began to dismantle the Libyan military infrastructure, a desperate and personal letter arrived at the White House. It was not written in the formal, cold language of traditional diplomacy. Instead, it was an emotional appeal from Muammar Gaddafi to Barack Obama, whom he addressed with the intimate Arabic honorific “our son.”
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This letter serves as a crucial historical marker. It represents the moment when the “Mad Dog of the Middle East,” who had spent the previous decade trying to buy his way back into the West’s good graces, realized that his past cooperation would not save him from the shifting tides of the Arab Spring.
The Strategic Betrayal
To understand the weight of the letter, one must recall that in 2003, Gaddafi had surrendered his nuclear and chemical weapons programs specifically to avoid the fate of Saddam Hussein. He had paid billions in reparations for the Lockerbie bombing and had become a key intelligence partner for the CIA and MI6 in the War on Terror.
When the 2011 uprising began, Gaddafi felt he was a partner being betrayed by his own allies. He believed that his efforts to fight Al-Qaeda in North Africa should have earned him a “pass” to crush internal dissent.
The Full Letter: To Our Son, Barack Hussein Obama
Sent on April 5, 2011, the following is the translated text of Gaddafi’s final direct communication to the President of the United States:
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.
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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.
Muammar Gaddafi Leader of the Revolution
The Response: “Actions, Not Words”
The White House did not dignify the letter with a formal reply. Instead, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly dismissed the plea, stating that the U.S. was looking for a “withdrawal of forces” rather than correspondence.
The irony of the letter’s dismissal is highlighted by the chaos that followed. Gaddafi’s warning that he was the “bulwark” against Al-Qaeda and African migration proved, in hindsight, to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Aftermath of the Silence
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The Power Vacuum: Within months of the letter, Gaddafi was dead, and Libya dissolved into a patchwork of warring militias.
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The Migration Floodgates: As Gaddafi had warned, the fall of the Libyan state turned the country into a primary transit point for human trafficking and migration toward Europe.
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The Proliferation of Weapons: The vast stockpiles of Libyan MANPADS (Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems) and small arms flowed into neighboring countries, destabilizing the entire Sahel region.
The Ghost in the Machine: Saif al-Islam
Today, the letter remains a centerpiece of the narrative used by his son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. Saif uses his father’s “betrayal” by the West to appeal to Libyan nationalists who are weary of 15 years of instability.
He presents the 2011 intervention not as a humanitarian mission, but as a coordinated hit on a leader who knew too much about Western campaign financing and who threatened the dominance of the US Dollar with his “Gold Dinar” project.
The letter to Obama was the last moment of the “Old Libya.” What followed was a lesson in the dangers of regime change without a plan—a mistake that continues to haunt the Mediterranean to this day.