Friends Today, Enemies Tomorrow

Now that everybody and his brother is ganging up on Gaddafi as the worst of the worst, it's interesting to note that, according to documents uncovered in the aftermath of his ouster from power, there was a quite cozy relationship between American and British intelligence and the Libyan government. In fact, the U.S. and Great Britain used the Libyans to carry out some of their dirty work and torture supposed or actual terrorists. They also shared information with that country.

So, how come the Libyan regime was good enough to serve Western interests, while it was doing all those awful things to its people? Surely, the Americans and the British were not unaware of what went on in that country. Still, they turned a blind eye to all this during all that time. No wonder Gaddafi had all those pictures of Condoleeza Rice! Now, all of a sudden, they have "discovered" how bad the Colonel really was, and, in what is a monumental display of cynicism and hypocrisy, Obama and Cameron called for his stepping down and used their combined firepower to help bring him down.

This is just the latest chapter in the history of the American foreign policy that supports ruthless dictators for a long time and then denounces and ditches them when it's convenient.