FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Khadafy's catch-22
Libyan leader ponders life as the world's number two terrorist
By Hamish MacAulayOnce again the man the world loves to hate has captured and held our attention for weeks. The ongoing duel between the earth's number one military power and number one villain is dominating front pages and nightly newscasts. As Saddam Hussein and the United States square off over yet another meaningless dispute, the whole world either cheers or jeers Saddam's superpower nose-tweaking except for one solitary, North African man. Colonel Moammar Khadafy must watch the events in Iraq with the utmost ambivalence, angry at losing his most-hated-world-leader status, thankful that the US's preoccupation with Iraq has at least deflected some of its attention from him, and uncertain whether not being US enemy number one will lengthen or shorten his life.
Whether or not Sadd-I-am should be allowed to prevent the US members of the UN weapons inspection teams into Iraq is irrelevant. Unfortunately, the unimportance of the issue was quickly dwarfed by the media, happy at last to find any kind of familiar news that can boost public interest and ratings with pictures of aircraft carriers and witty cartoons from the 1991 archives.
All this attention for Saddam must incite feelings of relief and envy in Khadafy, the man who for that brief time in the mid-'80s between the Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein years was public enemy number one in the eyes of the world. Today, Libya and its leader hardly register on the evil-that-needs-to-be-eradicated chart. Ever since Mobutu Sese Seko lost his title in a non-revolution, Khadafy has assumed the title of longest reigning strongman on the African continent, but the last 10 years have been relatively quiet for the man who was once the king of the terrorists.
Cynics might claim that Khadafy's rise to fame was simply a result of Ronald Reagan's bankrupt foreign policy that existed only to expand the military's budget and to boost the US's sagging ego by picking fights with small, non-threatening powers. Like Hussein, however, the animosity between Libya and the US is a two-way street. America needs villains to justify military expenditures and generate pre-election publicity for presidents seeking second terms. Khadafy needs external enemies to justify his military dictatorship and oppression of the people of Libya. Libya's ability to avoid the fundamentalist troubles that are affecting other North African countries is a testament to the success of Khadafy's policies.
In one of the greatest successes in the US's anti-terrorist program, Khadafy has kept a low profile ever since his compound was bombed by the US in 1986. Today, like Hussein, Khadafy is reported to never sleep in the same place two nights in a row. In both cases, it is all pathetic posturing. The US will not touch the psychotic Hussein as long as it remains convinced Iraq is the only bulwark preventing Iran from running over the entire Middle East and threatening vital oil supplies. Starving Hussein's people into submission provides much better coverage. Any liberal media left in the world is content that the US is using non-violent means to contain Saddam and the occasional dust-up with the de rigeur posturing is enough keep conservative media-types happy.
Unfortunately for Khadafy, he cannot count on such strategic concerns to protect him. He is far more expendable to US interests than Hussein. The only thing that must keep him awake at night, other than the sound of passing jets, must be the fear that not being public enemy number one in the US is somehow more likely to get him killed. With Clinton in his second term, Khadafy should be safe until the end of the next president's first term.
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