Did Muammar Gaddafi die like a hero or like a fool? This is a question historians are likely to ponder for many years to come. What is without doubt is that his death, as unexpected as it came last week, was very unpleasant.

According to reports, his convoy was attacked by Nato forces as it fled from Sirte. Injured, he crawled into a drain pipe. Then, after being given up by his guards, he was flushed out like the rat he claimed his enemies to be, dragged onto a car bonnet, shot dead and trampled upon.

One argument is that he fought bravely to the end, that he practised what he preached and that he did not give in despite the fact that the tide was turning against him. This is how he would wish to remembered: a fighter to the end.

However, there is another side: That his 42 years in power had caused him to be so detached from reality that he did not see it coming; that his relatively comfortable existence in Sirte after he escaped from Tripoli (he surprisingly made no effort to change his appearance, even continuing to dye his hair) lulled him into a false sense of security.

Even, perhaps, that there was division between him and his most high-profile son, Saif al-Islam, who, rather than staying by his father’s side, seems to have made a separate bid to escape (though there are conflicting reports saying he is injured in hospital).

Was Muammar Gaddafi offered this option by his son? Did he turn it down? And if so, why did he do so?

Whatever the case, it is highly unlikely that Gaddafi’s death will be seen as honourable.

When Adolf Hitler realised the end was nigh, he shot himself in the head and ensured his body was burnt so there would be no trophy for the victors. Amid all his madness, there remained a strand of strategy.

Conversely, Gaddafi begged his captors for mercy as they dragged this frail man to a very public and humiliating death. He could not have contemplated that.

Questions will rage over whether his death was legitimate. The answer, of course, is that it was not.

But there is no doubt, too, that Gaddafi almost chose this death for himself due to his violent conduct and intransigence.

May Libya now move forward in peace.

Maltatoday’s inconsistency

The decision by Maltatoday’s managing editor to file a criminal libel case against our newspaper, related to last week’s leader, reveals two things: one, that for all his huff, puff and bluster, he is a baby who enjoys dishing it out but cannot take it; two, that the central point of our editorial is as true as ever – which is that his actions differ markedly from his, now rather tired, words.

The managing editor has gone on record saying that libel is not for him, but is the “reign of politicians and their cronies”.

Whenever a libel case has been launched against his newspaper – and there are far too many to list here – his newspaper has run articles and editorials about intimidation and complained – on this point we agree – that in Malta, libel laws are “still set squarely against freedom of the press”.

So what does he do when we take him to task? Not only does he file a libel, but he takes it to the criminal court. This is inconsistency in its most inelegant form.

At some point last week, his lawyer wrote to us making this threat, unless we issued a retraction and an apology. The only apology we have to make is that we did not expose the managing editor’s inconsistency sooner. Throughout years of attacking us with baseless lies and insults (we have so far not resorted to court action since we believe in the power of our newspaper), we have maintained a dignified silence.

We offered him an opportunity to respond to the editorial, and what he sent was a lengthy tirade of insults, conspiracy theories and smokescreens suitable only for his own newspaper. We will go to court, and our expanding list of witnesses will be coming with us.

When we do, he will try to say we are concerned about circulation. Yet why should we worry when the Media Warehouse survey gives us 68 per cent of the market share and the Maltatoday Sunday edition gets only 5.6 per cent? Their mid-week edition fares even worse, with just 1.7 per cent of the market – equivalent to Leħen is-Sewwa.

He is denying our assertion that a single issue of Maltatoday has contained as much as 32 per cent in government advertising. But before doing that he should have checked that his co-owner did not put this in writing. He will deny many things, cast many aspersions. We are used to that.

He will also go to great lengths. So will we.