Artful Dodger:

> I tend to agree with you here. I think that one factor for going after Gadhafi is the
> Lockerbie bombing. One has to wonder what the US will do next?

The truth is that Gaddafi was ignored for a long time. After the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 the outgoing Reagan administration and the new Bush administration put a lot of pressure on him.

It was determined that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Lybian intelligence and security forces officer, had planned the bombing, although he maintaned his innocence for 8 years. Gaddafi handed over Megrahi and another man to be tried. It was that handing over that thawed the relations between Gaddafi and other European countries. Even the George W. Bush administration took a relatively more moderate stance towards Gaddafi on accounts of his deals with Europeans and and his willingness to trade oil.

Gaddafi did not become an issue until this wave of protests reached the news. Before then people did not really care about him. Now everybody talks about him.

The propaganda machinery is in full force now, from both sides. Western countries would like nothing more than some puppet to rise to power (somebody like Egypt's Mubarak). If our western governments really cared about democracy, they would not support and pour cash on a dictator like Mubarak while condemining one like Gaddafi.

Nobody cares about how the government in Bahrain has dealt with protesters. In that country the government has oppressed the Shia majority for decades. Our western governments have turned a blind eye because Bahrain sells cheap oil, runs banking monopolies, and oppresses a pro-Iranian Shia majority. While Lybia is made a big deal in the news, Bahrain is nothing more than a footnote.

Then there are worse, more oppressive regimes and bloody conflics that get ignored. I wonder if they would declare a no-fly zone over Tibet and Chechnya, and put sanctions on China and Russia. Would they stop buying diamonds and Europium ore from Congo and send US troops to stop the slaughter there? I don't mind our western governments talking of promoting democracy. What I can't stand is double-faced hypocrysy.