Who said it?

Since “Who said it?” is making a revival here on the Corner, I thought I’d play, too.

My column today recounts that up until very recently we pretended that Col. Qaddafi, a committed enemy of the United States, was a valuable friend and ally of the United States. I further argue that we are making a cognate error with respect to the Libyan opposition. As I point out, Qaddafi’s main opponents are Islamists who despise us as much as they despise Qaddafi. Yet, they are being portrayed as secular freedom fighters just struggling for democracy. I never claimed that Qaddafi’s main opposition is his only opposition, not did I contend that there are no authentic, pro-democracy Muslim moderates in Libya. In the interest of honesty, I conceded that I do not care about Libyans (just as I don’t think that Libyans – other than those who affirmatively despise us – care about Americans). I noted this because I don’t want to see us get bogged down in another ruinous democracy-promoting escapade. My main point, however, is that we shouldn’t make the same mistake with Qaddafi’s opposition as we did with Qaddafi himself – namely, seeing an enemy as a friend.

This argument has been caricatured on a popular blog as follows: “Andy McCarthy warns that we have no friends anywhere in Libya.”