Muammar Gaddafi has decided to make nice with the western world and hopes to rehabilitate his country and himself in the world community. Does Saddam's ignominious fate have anything to do with this decision? Maybe, but I believe that he simply wants any attention rather than no attention. He once was the leading bad guy in the eyes of much of the western world; he was a "madman" with his own country and links to terrorism. Years pass, and now he is lost amidst the dearth of terror groups and dictators that make him look almost benign. Granted, he has been linked to horrible acts in the past, but recent efforts to make some sort of reparations and accept blame for some of those acts have set the stage for yesterday's announcement. Should we work towards helping him reinvent himself and Libya...most certainly. The global community needs to work with Gaddafi and Libya to institute change within the country and reward such efforts accordingly. The world cannot afford to hold a grudge against Gaddafi and resist his overtures. He has seen that terrorism is not the solution to the problems that separate the western world and the Islamic world; if we are successful in helping him bring Libya back into the international community, this will be a far more powerful tool in the "war on terror" than any military effort.
Another gift for President Bush this Christmas. The Iraqi invasion may have been mired in lies and deceit, but we may have a chance to rehabilitate our actions if things continue in this positive way. We just need our leader to make sure we reinvent ourselves in the eyes of the Islamic world as friends to work with rather than foes to vanquish.
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