Popeye Knew The Libyan Rebels

The scenes of looting in Qaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound (here; here), and general mayhem in “liberated” Tripoli brought to mind the 1937 insights of that great animated Orientalist–Popeye–via my dear friend Hillel Stavis.

From Popeye the Sailor and Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves (1937):

The desert scene opens with Bluto as the classic Jihadist, Abu Hassan, at the head of the raziah (cf. Koran, Sura 8, verses 41-44 and the assignment of loot), singing,

“Your wives and children and money, too

I’ll steal them from you before I’m through..”

“When things get quiet I start a riot

When I go by…”

“Now make no error

I’m called the terror

Of every village and town.”