Nero, Caligula, Hitler, King George, Idi Amin. These are the names of some leaders who were raving lunatics. They were vicious, evil and certifiably coo-coo.
But Moamar Qadafi really takes the madman bloodlust to a new level.
Does anyone else think he talks like Charlie Sheen and looks eerily like Michael Jackson (odd skin tone and propensity toward make-up).
Except that we mechanisms to deal with a psychotic Hollywood star or a dead and alleged pedophile pop-star.
Qadafi will not leave voluntarily. He will savage his people to stay in power.
A no-fly zone cannot be a unilateral US action. It is hard to enforce and, if we engage, we have to be in for the long haul. Forget what Dick and Rummy told us about easy-win, easy-out strategies in Iraq. Stupid then; stupid now.
President Obama is pursuing the right strategy to make the military re-think killing fellow Libyans. John Wayne McCain is being contrarian. How many wars can we fight? If the US steps in overtly, it gives Qadafi leverage as a revolutionary against imperialist powers.
We have a moral obligation not to allow the slaughter. But we have to be intelligent about it. We have to look before we leap.
May Allah bless and save the Libyan people.