Written by: Beck

Ronald Reagan dropped bombs on Gadhafi's house. Gadhafi's angry anti-Americanism and overt, unashamed support of terrorists--along with all that line-of-death nonsense--catapulted Libya to the Club of Nations that America Really Fuckin Hates, previously occupied by only North Korea, Cuba, and Iran. I mean, sure, we weren't exactly big fans of the USSR or the Chi-coms, but that was largely just geo-politics. And while we definitely had no love for Vietnam, the fact that they'd sent us packing meant we at least had to grant them some measure of grudging respect. No, our dislike for those three four nations is personal. In the case of North Korea, it was over a war that technically never even ended (why exactly Vietnam isn't hated in the same fashion or to the same degree would make for an interesting topic on its own. Some other time perhaps). Iran overthrew the regime we'd set up, sacked our embassy, held a bunch of our citizens hostage for several years, set up a theocracy, supported terrorists, and took to referring to America as "The Great Satan." Cuba had the temerity to be a communist nation in the Western Hemisphere, not 70 miles from the Sunny State.

Well, Libya has now further distinguished themselves. They're the first of the four countries in the CoNtARFH to leave that august association. The writing has been on the wall ever since the fall of Baghdad when Gadhafi showed up at our doorsteps with several ship loads of machinery designed for the manufacture of WMDs. Still, Gadhafi is enough of a megalomaniacal America hating nutcase to screw it all up for himself somehow. Then Tony Blair made an historic visit to Libya which seems to have gone well. This Friday, however, will stand out as perhaps the biggest landmark in improving America-Libya relations yet. The Bush administration has lifted most of the sanctions against Libya. Fun facts for our fans:

The lifting of the sanctions does not detract from Libya's obligation to pay $2.7 billion, or $10 million per family, in compensation for the 270 victims.

The United States imposed travel and other restrictions on Libya in the early 1980s and added broad sanctions in 1986 after Libya was blamed for the bombing of a disco in Berlin, Germany, that killed two U.S. servicemen and a Turkish woman, and wounded 229, including 79 Americans.

The sanctions were expanded by the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, which cited Libya's failure to comply with U.N. resolutions, support of terrorism and efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

At this point I'd put up a long explanation of how the War on Terror is yielding dividends. But since our readers are only of the highest quality, I'll just go ahead and assume you've already figured that out on your own.