The EU, in the guise of that foreign policy chief who looks like a headmistress, would issue a stern condemnation. Then it would go back to discussing GMO regulations and the latest aid package to some corrupt third world hole.

Well OK, Frattini is a racist – but still, expecting little Malta to speak out blatantly against a longterm ally in such a precarious situation is being a bit unrealistic I think.

[Daphne – We haven’t made a Faustian pact with Gaddafi, Ian. And Malta can’t be too little to speak up and yet big enough to join the European Union.]

That was a cowardly act of Reagan’s that would have created more problems.

But it’s obvious that UK and US will release rhetoric in favour of the protestors – they consider themselves the ‘paladins’ of free speech, democracy, freedom and all that, simply because they are comfortable enough to do so.

Yes, they have business interests there, but as a % of their GDP such business is far, far smaller than Malta’s business interests there.

Speaking in favour of the protestors is obviously a more ’21st century’ and ‘western’ thing to do, but it could may well come at the cost of damaging severely business ties with a close partner – can we afford this?

[Daphne – Yes, we can, because it never pays to shore up a psycopathic dictator because at some point the situation is going to bite you in the ass. That is what is happening now. This is Europe’s ‘reward’ for colluding with Gaddafi for 42 years so as to be able to sell him things and buy his oil. That Franco Frattini in Italy said the damnedest thing today: that we shouldn’t export democracy to Libya because we run the risk of having the country split with one bit becoming an Islamic state on our doorstep. He failed to explain how that would be more frightening or worrying than having Gaddafi on your doorstep.]

The US and UK can in this case, but would the US do the same if things got ugly (as they do) in Mexico? They entered (started, even) NAFTA (righly so) for trade reasons, even though Mexico isn’t exactly a haven for human rights.

[Daphne – I don’t understand your first two sentences. As for the rest, we are part of the European Union. An attack on Malta is no longer an attack on Malta, but on the European Union. I am astonished you fail to be aware of this.]

We have business interests in Libya and people working in Libya. What do we do, shut them all out of our country because of some hasty condemnation?

[Daphne – There are far more British people and British interests in Libya than there are Maltese, and it didn’t stop William Hague. You don’t get anywhere by appeasing bullies of any scale. They just have to be faced down. The problem is that Gaddafi wasn’t faced down 42 years ago, and look how much suffering there has been since – suffering that was ignored because money could be made out of it. It is easier to do business with a dictator through bribery and corruption than it is to compete on the free market in a democracy.]

I will agree with you if you suggest that the USA bombard Libya like Ronald Reagan did, and only thanks to the traitor KMB that Gadaffi wasn’t hit.

What a muppet. Who exactly is going to disrespect Libya’s territorial integrity? Tunisia itself in the grips of a revolution? Egypt? Chad, where it was Libya that violated territorial integrity?

Where is Ranier Fsadni with his gushing praise for Libya’s parades now? Or Sceberras Trigona?