|
 The
decision by Libya's Moammar Qadaffi
to come clean, so to speak, and give
up his weapons
of mass destruction is being touted,
by the War
Party, as proof that their program of "regime change"
in Iraq has put the fear of God – or, at least, of Washington
and London – in the region's bad boys. But to anyone who has
been paying the least bit of attention to Libya and its eccentric
leader for the past decade or so, this contention is utter
nonsense.
Libyan
efforts to break out of economic and diplomatic
isolation long preceded the invasion of Iraq: the surrender and trial
of the two suspects in the 1988 Pan Am Lockerbie bombing,
in 1999, made it plain to even the least attentive that the
world-renowned oddball, who once fancied himself the Che Guevara
of the Arab world, was going "straight."
The
process leading to the dropping of United Nations sanctions
and the rapid reintegration of Libya into the Mediterranean
matrix of commerce, culture, and
diplomacy began well before the Iraq war was a twinkle in
Paul Wolfowtiz's eye. As Ray Takeyh noted
in Foreign Affairs [May-June, 2001]:
"Libya's
ongoing reintegration into the world community has already
started to pay off, and the rewards it has won from reclaimed
trade partnerships have generated a desire within the country
to come to terms with the Americans as well. Unlike Iran,
which refuses official contact with the United States, Libya
is eager to open a diplomatic dialogue. Abuzed Dorda, Libya's
U.N. envoy, has said, 'I expect that we will sit down with
the Americans and put the past behind us.' Even Qadaffi, in
his own eccentric manner, has made overtures to the new American
president, stressing, 'I believe that George W. Bush will
be nice. As a person he is not malicious or imperialist. I
believe that he attaches importance to the United States and
does not have world ambitions.'"
That's
a heck of a lot more credit than many of Bush's own countrymen
are giving him.
Qadaffi's
high international profile over the years is mainly on account
of his role as a mercurial moonbat among
world leaders: certainly, after 34 years in power, he is one
of the most enduring. Since seizing power from a weak, Western-supported
king, in 1969, he has been a veritable barometer of trendiness
– the Jai
Rodriguez of Arab strongmen.
As
an army officer in the early 1960s seeking to throw out the
evil foreigners and lead his people to "liberation," young
Moammar was in the vanguard of the Nasserist
trend, promoting a pan-Arabist nationalist vision that catapulted
him into power. In the 1960s and 70s, when ultra-leftist guerrilla-ism
was all the rage, the Libyan leader supported terrorist gangs,
including the Irish
Republican Army. In the 1980s, he took up the cause of
the ultra-rejectionists among the Palestinians: "If Abu Nidal
is a terrorist," he
famously announced, "then so is George Washington."
In
the 1990s, however, Qadaffi seemed to mellow: he was, after
all, getting on in years, and it was time to become, if not
exactly a neoconservative, as least as close to the classic
definition as one can get in Libya. Settling the Lockerbie
affair was only the culmination of a decade-long effort to
lose his status as an outsider. With pan-Arabism having long
since petered out, Qadaffi turned to an even more unlikely
panacea: pan-Africanism.
The
big problem with his new scheme,
however, was that Libyans have never considered themselves
Africans. Separated from their sub-Saharan neighbors by a
nearly impassable desert – and linked to Europe by history
as well as geography – they are Mediterraneans, culturally
far closer to their Sicilian first cousins than to their distant
relations south of the equator. A recent influx of African
workers led to riots
in which at least 600 were killed. Adding fuel to the fire,
no doubt the average Libyan is wondering if the gusher of
aid their leader has showered on the cause of African unity
might be better
spent at home – especially when his own standard of living
is piteous
by Western European standards.
Always
at the forefront of every trend, even before it breaks upon
an unsuspecting world, Qadaffi's latest turn is the culmination
and crowning achievement of his career as an ideological weathervane.
Having exhausted all other directions, he is now turning toward
Europe and working to reinsert Libya into its historic role
as a Mediterranean nation. The British have taken the lead in the reintegration
of a former pariah into the "concert
of Europe," at least economically: while the recent announcement
of Libya's intent to disarm is credited to the joint diplomatic
efforts of the U.S. and Britain, no doubt the latter was the
catalyst crucial to starting and completing the negotiations.
Qadaffi's
turnaround on WMD poses a challenge to U.S. policymakers:
how will they deal with the rising
call among Arab states that Israel must now be compelled
to do likewise? In a single stroke, Qadaffi has painted
himself as both a man of peace and a leading figure in the
Arab world, giving the Arab cause the moral high ground in
its continuing stand-off with Ariel Sharon. While the Israelis
are building an ominous-looking Wall of Separation, festooned with
barbed wire, and denouncing
the independent Geneva accords signed by unofficial Israeli
and Palestinian representatives, Arab
leaders are calling for regional disarmament
and throwing their
arsenals open to inspection.
Meanwhile, Mordecai Vanunu,
the Robert Oppenheimer of Israel, is still
rotting
in an Israeli jail for letting out
the open secret of Israel's nuclear
weapons.
Israel's
neoconservative partisans will not be too inclined to take Libya's
yes for an answer, but in this case their old enemy appears
to have outfoxed if not yet outflanked them.
The
argument that only the invasion and occupation of Iraq made
the Libyan announcement possible is sheer bunk: the Libyans
were ready to come around at the beginning of the Clinton
era, but the Great Pants-dropper was ready to nuke
them.
"Mercurial"
is the word most often attached to Qadaffi's name. In the
1990s he kicked
out terrorist training camps that he had once nurtured,
began his rapprochement with Europe, and made constant overtures to
the Clinton administration, which just as consistently
rebuffed
him. He unequivocally condemned
the 9/11 terrorist attacks, likened the rise of Bin Laden
to the progress of a "cancer,"
and quickly cooperated with
U.S. intelligence in turning
over information on terrorist suspects and Al Qaeda's
activities.
The
case of the Libyan turnaround illustrates the exact opposite
of what the war-hawks say
it does. It is a perfect example of why the Iraq war, and
the subsequent insurrection, could have been completely avoided,
while still achieving the ostensible aims of the U.S. and
Britain – eliminating weapons of mass destruction. Negotiations
work. In any event, there were no WMDs
in Iraq's case, and that was never the issue, anyway: we
all know, by now, why we really went to war,
and who lied us into it.
With
the Arab states beginning to unite around the issue of Israeli
WMDs, particularly nukes, Israel's amen corner in the U.S.
is clearly put on the defensive. The image of Ariel Sharon
(or an even more right-wing successor) turning the Middle
East into a sea of glass is a potent one in the war for world
opinion, particularly American public opinion, because it
seems increasingly possible. If daffy Qadaffi will give up
his WMDs, including his nuclear program, and Sharon won't,
is it any wonder that Israel is fast taking Libya's old place
as international pariah of the Mediterranean world?
Having
grasped on to every possible wrong idea (socialism, terrorism,
and foreign adventurism, to name only the top three), the
kooky Qadaffi – whose antics
have alternately amused and horrified us for three decades
– finally hit on one that makes sense.
Now
perhaps the foreign policy of the U.S. government can begin
to make a modicum of sense. Washington must take yes
for an answer, end diplomatic and economic sanctions, and
immediately normalize relations with Libya, or else lose all
credibility.
–
Justin Raimondo
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