Libya-An Embarrassment for the West

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com



In case you haven't been following the Libyan war (which President Obama assured us would be over in days rather than weeks), it is still going on. The French (The Leaders of the Free World) are dropping bombs on Libya, Ghaddafi is still in power, the Americans are launching rockets from the Mediterranean, while Obama makes a periodic announcement that Ghaddafi "must go", and the Germans went home months ago when they realized they were not invading France. Now the French have announced that they will stop bombing if Ghaddafi agrees to hold talks with the opposition.

Yes, it is quite ludicrous, is it not?

The fact is that Muammar Ghaddafi, this third world tin pot dictator and terrorist, has humiliated NATO and the Western powers for decades now. For all you UC Santa Cruz Community Studies majors, a little history lesson is in order. It was back in the 1980s that Ghaddafi sent a terrorist team to Berlin to blow up a nightclub frequented by American GIs. Several people were killed including Americans. Libya was quickly identified as the culprit. President Reagan ordered a bombing raid on Libya which actually killed one of Ghaddafi's children.

Then came the 1988 explosion of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people including 11 people on the ground. Subsequent investigation revealed that Libyan government agents carried out the plot. It was at that point that we and the Brits (and NATO) should have gone in and taken Ghaddafi and his regime out. We didn't. Eventually, Libya gave up two agents, one of whom was convicted and given a life sentence in the UK.

Speaking of the UK, remember in 1984 when Libyan diplomats stated firing out of the Libyan embassy in London against Libyan exiles who were protesting-killing a British policewoman? That was when diplomatic immunity kicked in and the Libyans were allowed to return to Libya to a hero's welcome by Ghaddafi.

Her name was Yvonne Fletcher-Does anybody in the UK remember?

Humiliation.

But then in the past decade, something happened. Apparently "inspired" by the invasion of Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein, Ghaddafi told the West he was tired of terrorism, that he would cooperate with the West and be a good boy. The West, ever aware of that Libyan oil, agreed and embraced this monster.

Now let's return to that Libyan agent locked up in Scotland for the Pan Am bombing. Shamefully, the Brits-involved in negotiations for British Petroleum to complete an oil deal- let him go and return to Libya (to a hero's welcome by Ghaddafi) because he was supposedly dying of cancer. Guess what. He is still kicking and doing fine.

Humiliation.

So here we are. A civil war is raging in Libya, and we have decided that we need to intervene-to protect innocent civilians from Ghaddafi's goons or whatever. Nonsense. I have written repeatedly that the only valid justification in getting involved would be to kill Ghaddafi for his past acts of terror against us. Other than that, it is not worth one American life. Thus far, we have not killed Ghaddafi, so we just let the Frenchies fly around and drop bombs. Now they are back to square one-if Ghadafi will just sit down and negotiate....

Is it any wonder that all the radical Islamists think they can conquer the West?

If our mission in Libya is to protect innocent civilians, then why, I ask, are we not bombing Syria? In that same vein, I have now come to the conclusion that it is time to question why we are in Afghanistan and Iraq. If it is cleaning up the last remnants of Al Qaida, that's one thing. If it is trying to build a model democratic state, I say forget about it.

I say enough with this nonsense in Libya. Find out where Ghaddafi is, blow him to smithereens and come on home. If they are not willing to do that, then there is no justification for being involved.

Frankly, I am weary of Obama and Hillary Clinton proclaiming that Ghaddafi "must go", while the French say that all he has to do is "sit down with the opposition."

It's enough to make one puke.