When Gadhafi falls, will his successor be better or worse?

When Gadhafi falls, will his successor be better or worse?

With recent articles re- porting congressional leaders advocating the bombing and overthrow of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, putting his life in jeopardy, he must wonder what it takes to survive the U.S. mindset. He became an ally of the U.S. in 2003 by disbanding his WMD programs, paying restitutions for past attacks, and providing us with intelligence against radical Islamists. This took place under the Bush 43 presidency, after Gadhafi saw what happened to Saddam Hussein. I remember it very well and said good job, George.

A non-violent uprising is one thing, but defending oneself against an armed uprising, which was this case, is a natural response. He could have expected a little help from his U.S. ally. But no, not only did he not get our support, but we, with U.N. help, jumped in and thwarted his successful quenching of the uprising with our military aid to the insurgents. By doing so, we extended the killing of civilians for an undetermined amount of time. In urban warfare both sides kill civilians. It is an impossibility not to.

The rebels, whoever they are, knew they had very little chance of overthrowing Gadhafi without outside help. They knew and did not care that their action would result in civilian deaths, so they cried genocide without evidence of the same. With that the U.S .and the U.N. came to their aid, prolonging a bad situation, and have backed themselves into a corner that has huge, long-range, detrimental consequences.

An ally who would support your adversaries and not you is not an ally at all. Who are these rebels? Gadhafi says many of the trouble makers are imported Islamic radicals and al-Qaida supporters. I’m inclined to believe him. Remember Fidel Castro? Is it not better to keep the devil you know, than have a devil you don’t know?

Tom Page, Boardman