Whither went your Barbara Walters interviews, Moammar?

I remember when I saw Barbara Walters doing interview with Mu'ammar Qaddafi* back in 1989. I was disgusted with it in a general sort of way. Barbara seemed so sympathetic about the tribulations that Col. Gadafi had gone through when his mansion was bombed by F-111F's back in 1986.

I was disgusted because Gadafi, a terrorist underwriter, had survived the retaliation for a bombing of our troops. I was disgusted that Walters was being so amiable and deferential to this terrorist, who was responsible for the Berlin bombing, the downing of an airliner over Lockerbie, and at least one fatal hijacking. Plus, had anyone actually seen this guy in the same room with Gene Simmons? I had my suspicions.**

Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi eventually accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, and made reparations. He was beginning to be accepted back into the international community.

And then came the uprisings in Tunisia, and Egypt. Suddenly, North Africa became a zone of people charged with the idea of liberation. After Egypt's coup, the people in Libya began to look at a ruler of 42 years as not being precisely "democratic."

Remember how some of us were a little ambivalent about Egypt's revolt?

Well, compared to Libya, Egypt looked like Canada. In Egypt, the troops refused to fire on the protestors. In fact, the government was turned over to the military there. In Libya, the troops have been mowing down protestors. Bad idea. We're getting reports of pro-Gadhafi forces gassing the protestors with poison gas. Bad idea.

So it was that yesterday, Libya's deputy ambassador to the U.N. stepped down and declared Muammar Khaddafi to be a "mad man." That's pretty bad.

But then later in the day, during open session on the floor of the U.N., amidst the dry verbage of international negotiation, Ambassador Mohamed Shalgham, Gadhafi's head Ambassador to the U.N. slammed Gadhafi's regime. He threw diplomacy to the wind, and said of his own government:

"They are asking for their rights. They did not throw a single stone and they were
killed. I tell my brother Gaddhafi: Leave the Libyans alone."

Colonel Mister Gadhafi? You're done. The guy whom you hand-picked to represent your government to the world has said that you are not legitimate.

Pack your bags, Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi. It's time to split.

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* You will notice that I'll be using a variety of spellings for this guy. Why not? Everyone else does.

** Which really isn't fair to the KISS frontman. He's turned out to be a huge supporter of U.S. troops.