Jeff Sharpe, who lost his friend Peter Pierce during the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in the Garden of Remembrance in Lockerbie ahead of the tragedy's 20th anniversary, Dec. 20, 2008.
AP Photo

"Comfort for Gaddafi, Pain for Obama: Is This the Formula We Want?"

Op-Ed, The Huffington Post

June 28, 2011

Author: Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security

On June 24, the House of Representatives rejected a bill to authorize U.S. military operations in Libya, thus registering its displeasure with President Obama for not having consulted it before launching hostilities there. Somewhat contradictorily, the House then voted down a second resolution that would have cut off funds for certain types of operations against the Libyan regime. This was the mixed message about American will that has been sent to Libya's grotesque leader.

Muammar Gaddafi, before he was shocked by the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 into mending his ways, caused two airplanes to crash, a PANAM plane over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 22, 1988 and a UTA plane over Chad on September 19, 1989. Is it possible to imagine much worse a death than to realize that, in the next few minutes or seconds, the plane is going to crash and you are going to die in a horrible way? No amount of Libyan blood money can make up for these horrendous acts.

So why are we criticizing military action against Gaddafi? Why are we advancing the disingenuous formula that Libya is not of strategic interest to the United States? If avenging Lockerbie is not in the interest of the United States, what on earth is?

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Full text of this publication is available at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-charles-g-cogan/comfort-for-qadhafi-pain-_b_884
543.html

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