QADAFFI WARNS IRAN

JUST WHEN I'd begun to think the whole world had gone flipping mad with regard to realities on the ground, here's a splash of fresh water across the face from a former wild child on the world stage. It's about time.

It has been reported this week that the somewhat reformed Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi has suggested that Iran risks the same fate as Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in its protracted confrontation with the West over its nuclear program and is too weak to meet the challenges it faces alone.

“What Iran is doing is pure vanity,” Colonel Qaddafi said during a visit to Tunisia. “If a decision is taken against Iran, it will suffer the same fate as Iraq. Iran is no stronger than Iraq and will be unable to resist.”

He was referring to the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, which the Bush administration said was intended to rid Iraq of illicit weapons. Colonel Qaddafi, whose relations with the West improved when Libya scrapped its efforts to develop nuclear weapons, said countries that chose isolation were doomed to fail.

Note that this former wild child is not rushing to join forces with Iran, either.