Does Gaddafi think the W.o.T. is a failure?
December 22, 2003 ~ 12:16 a.m.
This editorial from The Australian says it all. Only a week after Saddam Hussein�s capture, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has announced that he will let weapons inspectors into the country and will scrap his country�s nuclear and chemical weapons programs. Gaddafi is acting out of pure self-interest. There was a time when talk-show host Bob Grant would end his program with two words: �Get Gaddafi,� such was the notoriety of the Libyan leader. The fin de si�cle of Libyan terrorism came with the bombing of Pan Am flight 103. Thirteen years before 9-11, this was the most chilling act of Middle East-sponsored terror the world had witnessed.
It may not be right that Gaddafi should remain in power. After all, if Saddam Hussein had caved in, that would not have spelt peace or security for Iraqis. Unlike Maddas, Gaddafi may have twigged that the West is a sucker for sentimental gestures; or he may truly have decided that it is lonely to be so despised and desired international acceptance and goodwill. Whatever the case, we can expect cynics on the Left to announce that just as the Iraq war was all about oil, so is the turnabout by Libya. They will not see this as a victory in that rogue states will no longer threaten the world with WMD facilities without expecting retaliation in return. They will see it only in terms of black and green�oil and dollars. But if we accept the notion that free trade and good standing with the democratic world benefits everyone, then we should welcome Libya back into the international community and approach Gaddafi cautiously but optimistically.
Gaddafi in his heyday was a madman, but it wasn�t sanctions that rehabilitated him. It was the war in Iraq. One dictator awaits death by the wishes of the Iraqi majority. And another dictator has promised sunnier days ahead in his relations with the world. We can only hope so.
Col. Gaddafi may be shrewd, but now that he has declared a new Libya, he will have to stick to the promise. He must surely have realized, given recent events in Iraq, that dictators like him are fast becoming an endangered species.
What a failure this War on Terror has been, eh?
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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