Iraq Paved the Way for Libya

The uprisings sweeping across the Arab world could never have happened if we hadn’t taken out Saddam Hussein—and we ought to admit we’re trying to give Moammar Gadhafi the same treatment, writes Christopher Hitchens of Slate. “Can anyone imagine how the Arab spring would have played out if a keystone Arab state, oil-rich and heavily armed with a track record of intervention in its neighbors' affairs … were still the private property of a sadistic crime family?”

Gadhafi’s “abject fear” over Saddam’s fate was one of the major reasons he gave up his WMDs, a British diplomat tells Hitchens. “Who can conceivably wish it had been otherwise?” Iraq also taught us that a no-fly zone alone won't stop a dictator. So let’s cut the pretense—which "has reached farcical proportions”—that the mission isn’t to oust Gadhafi himself. Let’s “call evil by its right name, and face Gadhafi with a stark choice between his own death and his appearance in the dock.” (More Libya stories.)