Libya lessons for Cameron

THE Prime Minister finds himself in an invidious position over allegations of UK complicity in the mistreatment of terror suspects when Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan regime was brought back into the international fold by Tony Blair. The claims are embarrassing and depict a relationship that, at face value, was unduly cosy with a tyranny that had instigated the Lockerbie disaster.

Yet it is also important that the past does not detract unduly from the present. The decisions of the Blair government in 2003, and those operating on its behalf, need to be seen in the context in which they were taken – Britain was at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was still the world’s most wanted man.

As such, no Prime Minister would have allowed diplomatic niceties to be put before harsh pragmatism if there was a prospect of preventing another terrorist outrage on the scale of the September 11 hijackings a decade ago, though it is still impossible to justify – or defend – the subsequent release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. Yet, while Mr Cameron found himself having to explain decisions taken by his predecessors in the House of Commons yesterday, he was also trying to defend the present – namely Libya will remain in a state of chaos until Gaddafi, and his henchmen, are captured.

However, given the scale of the human rights abuses that continued to take place after Gaddafi was embraced by world leaders like Mr Blair, the PM deserves credit for his role in instigating a people-led revolution that did not require an occupying force.

The easier decision would have been not to embroil the UK in another conflict in the Middle East and North Africa. Yet, had he not done so, the past six months would have been spent agonising about why this country – and others – did not act to prevent a massacre in Benghazi. That needs remembering.

Mr Cameron’s challenge now is to build on the progress of the past six months. And, while the current turmoil is far from ideal, doing something – as the PM said yesterday – is still preferable to doing nothing and standing idly by.