The Bush-Gadhafi Deal

By G. Henry M. Schuler, TomPaine.com. Posted November 1, 2004.

George Bush never stops repeating that the world has been completely changed by the horrific attacks of 9/11. But his words are belied by his actions which demonstrate that the age-old mix of carrot and stick remains firmly entrenched in U.S. foreign policy. Now, let it be clear that this time-tested approach to international relations is entirely appropriate (and probably inescapable), provided it is executed with unclouded vision, untainted motives, unambiguous signals and unwavering resolve. Sadly, the Bush White House has ignored all of these prerequisites in its use of carrots and sticks.

Needing A Deal

Bush’s political advisor Karl Rove has spun both carrots and sticks into the web of campaign rhetoric that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney spout with increasing shrillness in the closing days of this campaign. The emphasis is, to be sure, on the pre-emptive use of muscular sticks in Iraq, but Rove recognizes that growing numbers of American voters know in their guts that it has been executed without attention to the prerequisites. Instead, U.S. vision has been clouded by neoconservative ideology; motives have been tainted by the commercial interests of Halliburton and countless security companies; signals have been distorted by a succession of U.S. proconsuls and their Iraqi stand-ins; and unwavering resolve has become a stubborn, faith-driven certainty. But all of those criticisms of the administration’s use of sticks are well known, so let’s refocus on the flip side of the "Bush Doctrine."

The carrots, as packaged by Rove, focus on the supposed intimidation and conversion of Mu’ammar Gadhafi, long considered the godfather of international terrorism. Perhaps the only head of state to call openly for the killing of Americans, his record of condoning, supporting and perpetrating terrorist acts all over the world is impeccable, if that is an appropriate word. George Bush’s predecessors used every tool in pursuing him: commercial embargo, diplomatic rupture, international isolation, judicial prosecution, and when all else failed, the bombing of his Tripoli headquarters in 1986. The results of these sticks were mixed – and the collateral damage very unfortunate – but America’s vision, motives, signals and resolve had been clear since the Reagan presidency.

After decades of acrimony and mistrust, President Bush and his only staunch ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, suddenly heaped lavish praise on Gadhafi in December of last year, making him the veritable poster child of a "reformed rogue." The carrots were quick to follow this unseemly – and in the event – overly hasty rehabilitation.

Quid Pro Quo

Bush’s resumption of diplomatic contact opened the door for our European allies to resume full diplomatic relations with Gaddafi and to send their leaders on state visits, including, within the last six months, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder, and Silvio Berlusconi (twice). They were, of course, accompanied by CEO’s of European oil companies, aircraft manufacturers, and, since earlier this month, high tech arms salesmen. Their U.S. counterparts were not far behind once Bush lifted the economic sanctions that President Reagan had used to signal that America could not be bought with Libyan oil concessions and billion dollar purchase contracts. No longer was it necessary for U.S. companies to operate in Libya through the fiction of foreign subsidiaries, as Halliburton had done for 18 years while incurring stiff fines for violations of sanctions that Dick Cheney could not get lifted until he became vice president.

With unrivaled chutzpah, Bush and Cheney endlessly argue that these carrots were granted in exchange for Gadhafi’s "renunciation of terrorism" in August 2003 and his "relinquishment of weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) in December of that same year. Within four months of accepting, on August 15, 2003, Gadhafi’s artfully hedged renunciation of terror and his halfhearted acceptance of responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 (which killed 270 innocent travelers, three-quarters of them American citizens), the White House learned that Gadhafi had recently launched his most brazen terrorist plot yet. In March 2003, Gadhafi had personally instructed and paid a naturalized American citizen to enlist Al Qaeda-linked Saudi jihadists to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

Henry Schuler was first posted to Libya in 1957 as a naval intelligence officer, served as an executive in the oil industry, and retired as a Middle East scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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