Last week, Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi called French President Nicolas Sarkozy a “clown”. This week Sarkozy responded by sending French fighter jets to bomb Qaddafi’s prized assets.I suppose that’s how personal affronts are settled in international diplomacy these days.
To be fair, who would like to be called a clown by Qaddafi? The man has built his entire career by changing outfits. Confession: I think he actually rocks most of them. I would not mind some of them myself. If only the Parisian haute couture would have let him join their ranks in the 1960s, we would not have to bomb Libya today. And the world would have been gifted a quirky fashion designer.
Apart from the colonel calling him a clown, his son Saif-al-Islam alleged that Libya had partly financed Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign, something quickly denied by the French president’s office. Saif offered no evidence, of course. In the world of the Qaddafis things such as evidence are superfluous. That they are saying it is expected to be treated as evidence. I am thinking though that one needs no evidence to call someone a clown.
From all accounts Sarkozy’s Libyan campaign could not have come at a better time for him to lift his sagging political fortunes. There is a presidential election next year and there are those who say that he would have lost it. However, the Libyan military campaign could turn things around for him. Privately, Sarkozy should send Qaddafi some French silk pie if he wins next year.
Note: If my French and Arabic translations are inaccurate, get in touch with Google.