Gadhafi Should be Removed Now

Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian
 
Moammar Gadhafi may be crazy, but he’s crazy like a fox.


As soon as the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 authorizing military action to protect Libyan civilians from Gadhafi’s savagery, the Libyan dictator announced that he would halt military operations and abide by a cease-fire.

The resolution allows western and Arab states to attack his forces besieging Benghazi and other cities.

Of course this is simply a ploy by Gadhafi to gain time and keep his stranglehold on those parts of Libya under his iron fist.

The coalition now arrayed against him should not only arm the anti-Gadhafi forces – they’re not “rebels” – but also destroy Gadhafi’s military, as a prelude to arresting him and bringing him, and his close allies and relatives, to justice at the International Criminal Court.

It is long past time to free Libya from this tyrant, who has oppressed his people for more than four decades.

After all, even a weakened Gadhafi will plot to seek revenge, using his favourite weapon – terrorism. He may even resume his quest for weapons of mass destruction.

Let’s not forget this man’s record. He personally ordered the downing of Pan Am 103 over Scotland, killing 270 people, in 1988; destroyed a French passenger jet over Niger, killing 171 people, a year later; bombed the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin, killing two U.S. soldiers and injuring more than 50 American servicemen, in 1986; established terrorist training camps on Libyan soil; provided terrorists with arms and safe havens; and at various times plotted to kill leaders in Saudi Arabia, Chad, Egypt, Sudan, and Tunisia. He praised the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981.

Gadhafi has supported terrorist activities from Ireland to Africa and the Middle East. He killed dissidents in Libya and sent agents to kill them overseas, too.

Gadhafi is likely to cause problems for neighboring Tunisia, Egypt and everyone else if he stays in power, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. “That is just his nature.” 

When George H.W. Bush forced Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in the Gulf War of 1991, some suggested that he continue on to Baghdad and oust the Iraqi leader. He chose not to. Saddam continued murdering thousands of Iraqis for another 12 years.

The same mistake should not be repeated with Libya. This leopard will not change its spots.