This one is dedicated to Islamic Nutcase Hairball Harry

JOSEPH PERKINS THE UNION-TRIBUNE
The world's tyrants are running scared


December 26, 2003

Moammar Gadhafi had a message this week for Kim Jong Il, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei and Bashar al-Assad.

North Korea, Iran and Iraq "should follow the steps of Libya," he
said, "so that they prevent any tragedy being afflicted upon their own
people."

Gadhafi's remarks follow his surprise agreement – announced by
President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair – to disclose and
dismantle the North African country's chemical, biological and nuclear
weapons programs.

Libya's leader wisely recognized that President Bush meant what he
said in the days following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New
York City and Washington, D.C. "Every nation and every region now has
a decision to make," Bush declared. "Either you are with us, or you
are with the terrorists."

Neither the Taliban in Afghanistan nor Saddam Hussein in Iraq took the
United States seriously. So now those fallen regimes have been
consigned to the dust bin of history.

Some suggest that American-led regime change in Afghanistan and Iraq
had little or nothing to do with Gadhafi's decision to seek
rapprochement with the United States. They suggest that the Libyan
leader's welcome decision to forswear unconventional weapons, to
renounce terror is as a triumph of diplomacy over military threat.

That's just so much hogwash.

For the fact is, two decades of economic sanctions against Libya, two
decades of international isolation of Tripoli, hardly deterred Gadhafi
from pursuing his weapons programs, from subsiding terrorists.

But when Bush put the rogue nations of the world on notice, when the
U.S. military started to kick tail and take names – first the Taliban,
then Saddam – that got the Libyan dictator's attention.

Indeed, it hardly was coincidental that Libyan envoys first approached
the Bush administration and the Blair government about a disarmament
deal in the days leading up to the Iraq war.

Nor was it coincidental that Gadhafi actually agreed to the deal, in
which Libya's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs will
be eliminated, a week after Saddam was dragged out of the "spider
hole" in which he was hiding.

Of course, there are some war critics, some Bush-bashers who will
refuse to acknowledge that America is safer now that Libya has
forsworn unconventional weapons, has renounced terror. Much as they
refused to acknowledge that America is safer with Saddam's capture,
with regime change in Baghdad.

They fail to see – or refuse to see – the connection between the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the gathering threat
of terror.

As President Bush explained, the terror attacks on New York City and
Washington, D.C. "revealed a future threat of even greater magnitude,"
of even greater horror.

"Terrorists who killed thousands of innocent people would," he said,
"if they ever gained weapons of mass destruction, kill hundreds of
thousands – without hesitation, without mercy.

"This danger is dramatically increased, he continued, "when regimes
build or acquire weapons of mass destruction and maintain ties to
terrorist groups."

That's why anti-war critics are so myopic to suggest that Saddam posed
no threat to the security of the American people, to insist that the
United States need not have removed him from power.

Saddam fully intended to develop or acquire weapons of mass
destruction. And one day he would have put a chemical, biological or
chemical weapon in the hands of terrorists who would use it against
either the United States or its allies.

After all, he thought nothing of paying the relatives of Palestinian
suicide bombers $10,000 to $25,000 to kill innocent Israeli citizens.

Gadhafi was once as despotic as Saddam, Libya once a state sponsor of
terror like Iraq.

The Libyan leader has renounced his past. His country has "begun the
process of rejoining the community of nations," as Bush attested this
past week.

Kim Jong Il, Ayatollah Khamenei and Bashar al-Assad would do well to
follow Moammar Gadhafi's example.

Perkins can be reached via e-mail at .




Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.



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