farquar
04-20-2006, 06:14 AM
In Libya, however, something small is awakening. Cell phones are everywhere. Unlimited access to the Internet and unrestricted satellite television are taken for granted. A once isolated and stagnant country is scrambling to provide private hotels and facilities to lure in an international business class. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Libya gave up its program of weapons of mass destruction.
Indeed, after Saddam Hussein was deposed, the United States was supposedly disliked worldwide, its efforts at democratization stalled in the bloodshed of the Sunni Triangle. Yet here in Libya at least, people have been friendly to me and the Americans I'm traveling with — and seem ready to resume relations and surprise Westerners with their newfound access to the outside world.
It may go mostly unspoken, but the removal of Saddam and the resulting effort to birth democracy in Iraq have sent tremors through the Middle East. http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060420/OPINION03/604200343/1110/OPINION
Indeed, after Saddam Hussein was deposed, the United States was supposedly disliked worldwide, its efforts at democratization stalled in the bloodshed of the Sunni Triangle. Yet here in Libya at least, people have been friendly to me and the Americans I'm traveling with — and seem ready to resume relations and surprise Westerners with their newfound access to the outside world.
It may go mostly unspoken, but the removal of Saddam and the resulting effort to birth democracy in Iraq have sent tremors through the Middle East. http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060420/OPINION03/604200343/1110/OPINION