The British press has been full of opinion about this turn of events, ranging from delight that Gaddafi is to stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the war on terror, to disgust at the sight of a British Prime Minister shaking the blood soaked hand of a terrorist dictator.
I haven’t heard anything of America’s position on this. How has this been reported in the US? Can we expect anytime soon to see Bush, or whoever is the next POTUS, to welcome Gaddafi back with a visit and a handshake?
Ya know, I’m flashing on Richard Nixon going to China in 1972. China at the time was more or less in basically the same position as Libya has been since 1969–nobody in the Western World was really officially speaking to them. And IIRC, there was a similar amount of horrified hand-wringing at Nixon’s “socializing” with the Evil Godless Commies.
And that didn’t turn out too badly. At least they’re talking. IMO “talking” is always a Good Thing. And especially if it’s the Evil Neighbor down the street, sometimes if you talk to him, you can find out stuff about him which makes it easier to deal with him.
So no, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a photo op of Bush shaking Gaddafi’s hand. Part of what politicians “do” involves shaking hands in public with people they may personally despise.
Not while the current policy is in operation; we’re still playing (the UK and US, that is) ‘good cop, bad cop’. One praises, the other’s mean and nasty.
I should add that Libya amounts to the UK’s crumbs from the table of empire, as it were. Mighty big crumbs ($30 billion of investment is required, apparently) but the US has it’s hands full elsewhere and Bush seems content to let Blair bag the gas, oil and infrastructure investment initiative.
Think of it as payment for services rendered in the service of empire. All Blair needs now (before November, presumably) is a campaign medal - what’s Bush likely to offer, I wonder . . .