None of these write to the Colonel either. Anti-Gaddafi demonstrators in Sofia, 26 February 2011

Bulgaria wants Gaddafi’s guts for garters

A popular Sofia daily takes issue with the Bulgarian government, which has dubbed the allied intervention in Libya "a military adventure," and argues that Bulgaria has every reason to join with its real friends in seeking revenge on the Libyan dictator.

Published on 23 March 2011 at 15:58
None of these write to the Colonel either. Anti-Gaddafi demonstrators in Sofia, 26 February 2011

When the oh-so delicate German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Guido Westerwelle, declares that his country does not want to commit to a war in North Africa, we get the picture. After all, he can hardly be expected to embark on a campaign that could bring back painful memories of the Second World War and the defeat of Rommel and his men in the Libyan desert — a trauma that to some extent excuses the attitude adopted by Frau Merkel and the rest of her compatriots, who have decided not to participate in a coalition against Gaddafi at such a crucial moment for Europe.

However, Bulgaria has no such excuse. Why did Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov describe an operation, which was not formally opposed by any country when it was approved by the United Nations, as a “military adventure motivated by oil”? Quite frankly, the air strikes against Gaddafi’s regime should be greeted with a bit more enthusiasm by Bulgarian authorities.

Our country certainly has its reasons for wanting to see off a despot, who tortured five innocent women for eight years [a group of Bulgarian nurses arrested in 1999, charged with infecting Libyan children with AIDS, sentenced to death and finally released in 2007] and made an ass out of successive governments in Sofia.

No mercy for the cocaine-snorting satrap

In this war, the only reasonable choice is to weigh in on the side of justice, and to acknowledge the courage of the West, which has finally overcome its hypocrisy and put an end to years of shady deals with the blood-soaked colonel by giving him a taste of his own medicine. In short, there should be no mercy for the cocaine-snorting satrap! Game over for Gaddafi, and bring on the change in Libya.

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Having been on the wrong side in two world wars and in the Cold War, it is high time that we gave our support to France, Great Britain and the United States. We will not be better off siding with Berlin or Moscow — and such a move will only amount to self-deception. Let’s not forget that when five Bulgarian nurses were sentenced to death in Libya Lyudmila Putin did not ride to the rescue; it was Madame Sarkozy [President Sarkozy’s ex-wife Cecilia] who brought them home to Bulgaria safe and sound in a French government jet.

Worse still, if we persist in hesitating between two options, we will end up like Buridan’s ass, who though starving and dying of thirst was unable to choose between a pile of hay and a pail of water that were both equally far away. Notwithstanding its name, this paradox did not originate with Jean Buridan (1292-1363), but we should certainly take note of the lesson to be learned from this French philosopher and advocate of moral determinism, who argued that “save for ignorance or impediment, a human faced by alternative courses of action must always choose the greater good.” For pity’s sake, let’s not be ignorant!

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