QADDAFI PITCHES THE BUSH DOCTRINE:

Libya Makes Overtures to U.S. (Kenneth R. Timmerman, March 3, 2004, Insight)

In a stunning departure from 35 years of hostility with the West, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi told delegates at the opening of the Libyan People's National Congress in the seaside resort town of Sirte on Tuesday that his government had renounced terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and declared that "a new era has started" of openness and cooperation with the United States.

In an address to the nation's top elected leaders as well as seven members of the United States House of Representatives, the Libyan leader gave the first detailed public account of the reasons behind his surprise announcement on Dec. 19 that Libya was prepared to abandon its previously secret nuclear-weapons program. [...]

In a brutally self-critical account of Libya's past support for radical movements around the world, Qaddafi concluded that Libya had paid a high price for its adventures. "Libya helped African nations" as they were breaking away from former colonial powers, "and we made other countries view Libya as an enemy," he said.

Libya helped the Palestinians, and now "the Palestinian president enters the White House. And we tell [Yasser] Arafat we oppose America because of you? How can [Arafat] enter the White House and we not improve our relations with the United States?"

Because of the changing circumstances in the world, where former enemies have become partners, if not friends, Qaddafi said, "We decided to review our decisions, and concluded that we had isolated ourselves from the rest of the world."

"If the Palestinians can recognize Israel, how can we not recognize that country?" he asked. "We cannot be more Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves." The liberation struggles that Libya had supported "are finished, the battle is finished. ... Now people are shaking hands. So should only we stay enemies?"

Turning to his previously secret nuclear-weapons program, he noted that Libya, like many developing nations, sought to acquire nuclear weapons "without really thinking against whom we would use it. But today ... it becomes a problem to have a nuclear bomb. At the time, it was maybe the fashion to have a nuclear bomb. Today, you have no enemy. Who's the enemy?" he asked. [...]

In his colorful presentation, Qaddafi frequently sounded the theme that nuclear weapons and terrorism were no longer a guarantor of security, but a security risk. Having publicly abandoned its weapons and opened its nuclear sites to international inspections, Libya had enhanced its security, not diminished it.

If nothing else, the Colonel demonstrates he's smarter than our own Left when he says that possessing WMD decreases rather than increases your security in a world where George W. Bush is President of the United States

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 3, 2004 6:12 PM