The real reason Libya came in from the cold

The US has been touting the way it has brought Libya "to heel", as it were, including restoring diplomatic relations with the former renegade country.

It's all rather fanciful, Michael Hirsh, columnist in Newsweek suggests. As Hirsh says:

"All of which raises an interesting question: just what kind of "model" is Libya really? It's certainly not a model for Bush's global democracy campaign; quite the opposite, in fact, although the administration is now touting the idea that diplomatic relations with Libya will give Washington more leverage in pressing for internal reform. (This is blatant nonsense: the Kaddafi clan, led by the leader's heir-to-be, his son Seif Kaddafi, will now become richer, and more powerful.) It is also a stretch to think that the Iranians or even the North Koreans are going to emulate the strategy followed by Kaddafi, who is mocked as a barmy Bedouin even by his fellow Arabs."

Read the "real" story here - and the lessons, the writer suggests, the US should learn from dealing with Libya in the way it deals with Iran and North Korea.

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