On September 1, Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi (the proper
transliteration of his name) would have been ruler of Libya for
exactly 42 years, making him the world's longest ruling head of
state. As he leaves the scene, his wretched reign deserves an
appraisal.  Qaddafi took power at the age of 27 in the waning
days of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the immensely influential pan-Arab
leader of Egypt, and saw himself as Nasser's acolyte but with a
greater ambitions: whereas Nasser dreamed of a single Arab
nation stretching from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf as an
end in itself, Qaddafi saw Arab unity as the first step to
Muslim unity.   Although Qaddafi failed to achieve any sort of
unity, and his "Third International Theory" detailed in the 1975
Green Book proved a total bust, he did have an early and marked
impact on two major developments.  First, he played a key role
in the increase in energy prices that began in 1972 and
continues to this day.   By challenging the international oil
companies' control over petroleum producti