Estonian commentary sees rebuilding Libya as "complicated balancing act".

Text of report by private Estonian newspaper Postimees, part of the Eesti Meedia group,

[Commentary by Erkki Bahovski, historian and board member of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute: "Libya: Equation With Several Variables"]

In 2003, after Libyan leader Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi had closed the country's nuclear program, it seemed that relations between the West, especially the United States, and Libya would be one great honeymoon. It is debatable whether Al-Qadhafi was motivated by the quick demise of Iraq in 2003 (where no one predicted a long guerrilla war at the time), or by his hope of improving relations with the West, which had reached a dead end after the 1988 Lockerbie terrorist attack organized by Libyans, resulting in the deaths of 270 people.

The wish to improve relations with the West seems more plausible because some other countries drew diametrically different conclusions from the overthrow of Saddam Husayn's regime. Iran and North Korea have not announced that they will close their nuclear programs.

However, those countries were pariahs already in 2003 while Al-Qadhafi enjoyed support and praise from Western leaders. Now some CIA documents have emerged which indicate how warm relations with Al-Qadhafi really were. No one bothered asking how the Libyan people were doing. …