I don’t have any pity for Gaddafi but it would have been far better if he had been taken into custody and put on trial. His treatment by the mob will look worse and worse as the years pass and passions cool. For example, it is easy to understand the rage of those who killed Benito Mussolini and mutilated his corpse, but it still seems an all but inexcusable atrocity from our perspective today. A trial for Gaddafi would have been especially beneficial since he almost certainly would have made a fool of himself in all his megalomaniacal glory. This was not so certain with Mussolini, who might have risen to the occasion and defended himself with defiant energy. Hermann Goering, a weaker man than Mussolini in most respects, managed it, helping to obscure his reputation as a buffoon and sinister clown.