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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 25, 1983
PAGE 10
There will, of course, be further developments in this big story in coming
weeks. An emergency OPEC meeting is scheduled soon, probably about the
time you receive this.
Kadafi Back "In His Box"
Thanks to a show of force by the U.S., a plot by Libya's mercurial leader,
Muammar Kadafi, to overthrow the government of the Sudan has been thwarted.
The carrier Nimitz was dispatched from offshore Lebanon to the vicinity of
the Libyan coast.
Four U.S. AWACS (airborne warning and control system)
planes were used to scan Egyptian and Sudanese airspace for any unwanted
Libyanese aircraft. There is little doubt that Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak asked for U.S. assistance for his ally to the south, Sudanese
President Jaafar Numeiri. However, he had to publicly deny the request so
as not to appear to fellow Arabs to be too reliant on U.S. power.
From all appearances, it may have been a close call for the pro-Western
Numeiri who said after the incident that the Libyan threat has been "going
on for three years," that "it won't go away" and that the Libyan dictator
"is not only a threat to Sudan, he is a threat to the world." The President
of Chad, Hissen Habre, could echo the sentiment, his country having endured
a year-long occupation by Libyan forces beginning in December, 1980. Here
is how the lead editorial in the February 23, 1983 WALL STREET JOURNAL
analyzed this latest threat to Middle East stability and the reality of
world affairs in general, so minimized by idealists:
Now that [Secretary of State] George Shultz has declared that the
Libyan threat has "receded"•••the usual skeptics are asking
whether any real danger existed or was this a Reagan grandstand
play. To be certain one would need to read Muammar Qadhafi 's
mind, a formidable task•..• [There are many English spellings of
the Libyan dictator's name.] While the Sudan was the ostensible
target, some folks at State thought another invasion of Chad was
just as likely.
Qadhafi himself imp!ied as much and Chadian
sources tell us they believed him.... The Chad government is
still as nervous as turkeys in November.
The extent to which the U.S. has frustrated this ambition (of
Qadhafi] over the last two years is� of the quiet but signifi
� success stories of President Reagan's diplomacy. The judi
cious use of force, including the downing of two Libyan SU-22s
over the Gulf of Sidra in 1981, economic and political pressure
and a great deal of luck, have helped keep Qadhafi "in his box,"
as Secretary Shultz puts it.•••
To the extent that American pressure has helped keep Qadhafi on
the defensive, it has undoubtedly contributed to the peace and
stability of his neighbors. There are plenty of people around to
whom U.S. carrier movements smack too much of gunboat diplomacy,
and Libya will play to this audience with its U.N. complaints
about imperialist aggression. But Chad President Habre had the
right response, for his people and for us, when he warned in his
New Y � ar's Eve address, "The present world is ruled _ey, the law of
the Jungle. He who does not recognize this hard reality, who
does not� to� reality face to face, is bound to disappear
under the implacable weight of events."