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Libya's Decision
Could it open a cross-cultural threshold?

By Patrick Totty

Late December’s announcement that Libya has agreed to cease all development of weapons of mass destruction may be the opening of a grand new era in cross-cultural travel and relations between westerners and Arabs.

Libya’s willingness to dismantle its WMD programs makes that country far less of a perceived threat to the U.S. In diplomacy, where it’s established practice to reward a foe who has come around to your point of view, expect to see the U.S. increase its trade with Libya and extend greater diplomatic recognition.

Of course, this will be a boon for U.S. travelers. Because of the tense relationships between the two countries at the governmental level, many Americans have erred on the side of caution and avoided traveling to Libya.

As understandable as it is, that attitude is a shame. Libya is one of the great repositories of ancient Carthaginian and Roman ruins, as well as later constructions by the Arab armies that swept across North Africa after the rise of Islam in the 7^th century A.D.

It is also home to a sweetly hospitable people who do not harbor any particular antipathy toward Americans. Travelers we’ve talked to who have passed through Libya over the past few years have uniformly reported having a safe, enjoyable experience. (In our August 2001 issue, our feature, Little Known Libya Shelters Roman Ruins, detailed the country’s warmth and richness as a travel destination.)

A Grand Irony

The developments with Libya are another ironical example of how seemingly permanent and immobile props on the international stage can get moved around.

Baby Boomers grew up thinking the Soviet Union was a permanent arrangement and that the Cold War would go on forever.

And before Nixon flew to Beijing in 1972, most Americans thought “Red China” would continue on into the distant future being the enigmatic inspiration for paranoid Hollywood political thrillers.

So, the 1969 coup that brought Col. Mohammar Khadafy to power in Libya also seemed to conform to what we all thought was an immutable fact of life: The colonel, an extremely eccentric man at best, appeared destined to be one of those Third-World tyrants whose role is to act as a perpetual irritant to Europe and America.

Bad blood between the U.S. and Khadafy grew over the years, culminating in the tit-for-tat U.S. bombing of Col, Khadafy’s residence in 1986, and his retaliatory bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

Surely this was an enmity that would last a long, long time.

Apparently not.

While We’re at It. . .

We’ll even predict a boom in travel to Iraq within the next three to five years. Despite the controversies over who (the U.S.-led coalition by itself? The UN? NATO? A combination of these?) will rebuild Iraq, there is an international consensus that Iraq must emerge as a civil society led by a democratically elected government.

This means a stable, tourist-friendly state that will be eager to welcome travelers. Now that initial fears that the Baghdad Museum had been massively looted and ransacked have been mostly quieted, Iraq could soon have in place a world-class-level attraction with which to lure visitors.

The country’s other attractions, including archaeological sites and ancient ruins from the Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian eras, will also prove to be catnip once travelers are assured that the country’s infrastructure is functioning and safe.