In the 1980s and 1990s I suspect that an American politician who suggested we ought to rehabilitate Colonel Gaddafi would be commiting political suicide. But here we are today, the unthinkable becomes reality:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3336493.stm
In the 70s and 80s any Briton suggesting an end to the war with the IRA would be considered an apostate. Likewise any Republican Irishman. But today here we are:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4724505.stm
Ten years down the road who's to say Bush's and Blair's successors will not do the same deal with Al Qaeda and their successors?
I have a feeling in my gut, and a bag of evidence from history that this geo-strategic transformation will take place within my lifetime. The first evidence I will submit is the reaction of William Gladstone to the Turkish massacre of 10,000s of Bulgarians--he and the British Liberal establishment went ballistic and co-ordinated a media attack on the Ottomans succesfully tying them in with British Tory-ism. It was Johnny Turk this and Johnny Turk that: savages, brutes, evil, bloodyhanded etc. (This attack on a Turkish massacre folled very closely on the heels of a bloody British action that destroyed the Indian mutiny.) Within a few years the Turks had been rehabilitated as our bestest ally against the Russian bear. The imfamous "Jingo" song originates from a British promise to keep the Bear from "Constantinople". And so it goes. Outrage at Islamic atrocities is notoriously shortlived and contradictory and is generally just used to bludgeon domestic opponents: In the middle ages these opponents were heretics or schismatics. Even Protestants were condemned for assisting the Moors in Spain. In the 19th century they were slimey Tories, now they are liberals.
The ability of any government to do a 180 turn is startling: Colonel Gaddafi is just one example, General Musharaf another: Once a pariah coup leader now a respected ally; he's conducting a ethin cleansing campaign in Kashmir and Ghazni(sp) province as we speak. The Kashmiri Hindu's are subjected to frequent attacks from suicide bombers. The Ghaznis are a people bred out of their tribal lands by rapid urban developement to house riggers and skirmishes over natural gas and mineral rights. And so it goes. We should not be electing our leaders on the basis of their stance against Islamic threats both real and imagined.