Headline Washington Times: Dean left speechless on Libya arms move

According to this article, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that his decision to disarm was directly related to the United States leading the coalition to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

"I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid."

I do not know the authenticity of the quote. The Washington Times takes it from Monday’s Telegraph of London. The quote does sound highly suspicious; I find it hard to believe Gadhafi would say such a thing unless he was attempting to manipulate American politicians. But Gadhafi’s statement contradicts Howard Dean, who claims Libya’s disarming is the culmination of years of diplomacy, and is not related to the freeing of Iraq. The negotiations leading to this past Friday’s announcement of Libya’s disarmament began in March, which, according to Dean, was only coincidentally the same time as the invasion of Iraq.

What is clear is that diplomacy combined with the credible threat of force was the impetus for Libya’s stunning decision to disarm. It is another example of how we are safer now that Saddam has been removed from power in Iraq. Diplomacy by itself for decades did not encourage Libya to disarm. But the combination of the carrot and stick made all the difference.

Much still has to be done to prove Libya is going to carry through with their stated intention of abandoning weapons of mass destruction. I remain skeptical until we see some concrete results. But it is a very promising situation. And, we have the added benefit of silencing Dr. Dean, which is a wonderful side-effect.