Libya's actions have nothing to do with Iraq

Martin S. Indyk critiques the Bush's administration's "perfect comback" to the charge of not finding WMD in Iraq: its claim that Libya gave up its WMD program because of the precedent set towards Saddam Hussein.

"Get rid of one dictator because of his supposed WMD programmes," the logic goes, "and others will be so afraid that they will voluntarily abandon their weapons programmes. Therefore, even if no WMDs were found in Iraq, we still made the world a safer place."

This convenient argument doesn't hold up, however. Libya has long been making overtures to abandon its WMD program in order to loosen the economic embargo around its neck.

As Indyk concludes, "Libyan disarmament did not require a war in Iraq."