Word: gaddafis
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...short run it seemed likely that there would be more such attacks, although U.S. officials hoped that the bombing raid would eventually diminish the taste for murders, hijackings and other outrages, not only by Gaddafi but among terrorist groups that he sponsors and trains. Meanwhile the diplomatic and political fallout from the bombing raid has damaged the U.S. position in Europe. Government leaders, who had been pressed hard by the U.S. since the December airport attacks to impose diplomatic and economic sanctions on Libya, were careful to balance criticisms of the American raid with strong condemnations of Libya and terrorism...
Besides, there was a growing feeling that the Administration had exhausted every other alternative for taming Gaddafi. Said President Reagan, addressing a meeting of lawyers on Wednesday: "We tried quiet diplomacy. We tried public condemnation. We tried economic sanctions. And, yes, we tried a show of military might (the Sixth Fleet's skirmish in the Gulf of Sidra with Libyan patrol boats and missile batteries last month). But Gaddafi intensified his terrorist war, sending his agents around the world to murder and maim innocents...
...Administration's case drew vigorous agreement across almost the full spectrum of American political opinion. House Speaker Tip O'Neill, usually a leader of opposition to what his fellow Democrats see as an overly adventurous Reagan foreign policy, declared that "we just can't let this madman of terrorism (Gaddafi) keep threatening." Indeed, said O'Neill, if Libya continues to foment terrorism, "I think the American people would demand that we go in again." The New York Times and Washington Post, whose editorial writers are often skeptical about military action overseas, voiced approval of the raid. The most notable dissenter...
...Reagan Administration's attitude toward an air strike had been years in the making. The President has been preoccupied with the problem of terrorism since his early days in office. Two events in Reagan's first year helped to fix his thoughts on Gaddafi as a symbol of virtually everything he hates. One was a Libyan attack on U.S. jets in the Gulf of Sidra that resulted in the shooting down of two of Gaddafi's Soviet-built Su-22 fighter planes. Later in 1981 U.S. intelligence picked up information that Libya was sending hit squads...
Very privately, the U.S. picked up some support in the Arab world. Radical Arab states condemned the military strike in shrill, vehement and threatening terms, conservative nations in ritualistic tones. But their confidential comments differed markedly from their public ones. Said one Arab government minister: "Gaddafi has done more harm to us (by fomenting terrorism) than to the Americans. The only problem with the attack on Libya is that you didn...