How was this great uprooting of a dictator achieved? There will be huge pride inside the country that the people carved out their own destiny, that this rebellion was made in Libya rather than in the think-tanks of Washington. Yes, it was an Arab uprising, but it could not have succeeded without outside help.
But if ever new statues are erected in Tripoli, French President Nicholas Sarkozy may just find a niche or a plinth. For internationally, this was his war. The French president is never shy in playing the leading role in any situation. Over Libya, he was roused by the activist-philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.
The argument was simple. The West faced a moment of choice. A moral choice. It could stand by, as it had in Rwanda, and watch a massacre in Benghazi or it could intervene.
Inside France, there is pride at the outcome. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe summed it up on seeing the liberation of Tripoli: "This is a subject of great satisfaction. France took risks, calculated risks, but the cause was just." if the scenes of jubilation in Tripoli have a single western author, it is Nicolas Sarkozy.
For more: BBC News - Will Sarkozy get a statue in Tripoli?
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