Doing What We Must

Early on in my blog I called for efforts to turn Libya. In our efforts to eliminate terror sponsors and sanctuaries, I argued that we should destroy states that will not change, but that if a nation wishes to abandon terror out of fear or whatever, we should pursue this. It is a good thing that our enemies see a choice of something other than fighting us to our death or their death. We have plenty of enemies and we need to keep those that need to be invaded to a minimum.

Libya was a prime target for the "bring them in from the cold" strategy, I thought. And the announcement by Libya that they have abandoned WMD programs was a sign that this strategy was taking place. Our relations can get better:

"We have had a very good discussion of a path toward Libyan-US relations that will lead us to better and better relations between our people, between our governments," Rice told reporters on the sidelines of the current General Assembly session.

Diplomatic relations between Washington and Tripoli were restored in June 2004 after a 24-year rupture following the Libyan leader's surprise announcement the previous December that he was giving up the quest for weapons of mass destruction.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch traveled to Tripoli last June.

On Friday, Kadhafi kept up the diplomatic momentum, calling on all Libyans to "open up to the world" and turn the page on years of international isolation.

Look, Khadafi is a nut, a thug, and in a perfect world would be awaiting trial like Saddam. But in the world we have, it is better to get help from the likes of Libya than to have them nipping at our heels. We have bigger targets to worry about and justice on this front will have to be put off.

So those who criticize this move need, I think, to grow up. We have one fewer worry for the moment and I applaud that. We will indeed have come a long way in our war when the likes of Khadafi rise to the top of the "to do" pile. We aren't there yet.