When the first calls for a Libyan “day of rage” were circulated, Gaddafi pledged – apparently in all seriousness – to protest with the people, in keeping with his myth of being the “brother leader of the revolution” who had long ago relinquished power to the people. As it turned out, the scent of freedom and the draw of possibly toppling the colonel, just as Egypt’s Mubarak and Tunisia’s Ben Ali had been toppled, was too strong to resist among parts of the Libyan population, especially in the east.
