TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, keen to improve ties with the West, has invited President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit his country, a visiting U.S. senator said on Saturday.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, ending a two-day trip to Libya, told a news conference he had held talks with Gaddafi on normalizing relations after decades of estrangement, following Tripoli’s decision to abandon weapons of mass destruction.
The on-going return to normal diplomatic relations with Libya is a major victory for the Bush administration. The fact that it came about can be directly attributed to Bush’s foreign policies in the middle east. There’s a long way to go yet, for sure, but its a positive and heartening story none-the-less.
But do you think its going to get any media attention? It might get some (its largely been ignored since Gaddafi announced his desire to return to normal diplomatic ties over a year ago), but not the sort of in-depth, in-your-face coverage moonbat Cindy Sheehan and her crowd of smelly hippie left-overs get with their “Bush is the puppet of the Jews” protests down in Crawford. Which is something that speaks volumes about the state of media bias today.
By Rob Port of Say Anything.
One huge obstacle for Libya is overcoming, by its own admission, their role in Pan Am flight 103. Can one ever fully normalize that?
Gaddafi will always be a snake.
Should we assume that the years of sanctions brought him around or that he is trying to sanitize things for his son?
Libya is not a free nation. It’s nice to get them out of the weapons business, but getting them to hold elections would be a lot better.
I’m looking forward to the day when I can take a Libyan vacation and tour the famous Gulf of Sidra Line of Death. Of course I’ll have my camera ready and I’ll definitely blog about it. Should be a great vacation!
In my opinion, Gaddafi is another Saddam Hussein-like thug, and always will be. Another military dictator that is sucking up to us.
At this point, I think he is reacting to the writing on the wall, and trying to make a political move that will get him on the right side. He’s a punk just like Musharef of Pakistan, and types like him always seem to bite us in the ass down the line.
I agree with Joe…maybe we can use this opportunity to pressure Gaddafi into actually making room for democratic reform. But then, he would probably lose his job, of course.
It’s good, overall, that he is trying to improve relations with us. I think we could use it as an opportunity to show the people of Libya what we are all about, and maybe make some headway in the that department.
JACK:
I dont know if I’ve ever read anything that started off “I’m looking forward to the day when I can take a Libyan vacation…”
LOL
Soon there will be Corona commericals with hot chicks sitting on those exotic Libyan beaches…it’s only a matter of time.
It’s more than a little simplistic to say that Gaddafi gave up his WMD program simply because we got tough with Saddam. He’d been negotiating to do that very thing since 1999, because US and UN sanctions were crippling him (have you ever asked yourself why he turned over the PanAm hijackers?) The reason it took so long was because we made the central point of our negotiations his support for terrorism, since his WMD program was much less significant. Bush deserves some credit, of course, but the cause and effect for these kind of things is usually a bit more complex than that. That may be why your hated MSM hasn’t been falling all over itself to proclaim Bush the hero of the Libyan diarmament.
Here’s some reading you might find interesting. I’m sure you won’t agree with it, but it might convince you rthat there’s a legitimate reason why some have a different point of view on the matter.
http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/indyk/20040309.htm