No Country for This Old Man?

No one knows who could replace Moammar Gadhafi, but that isn't stopping the Obama administration from looking for a new home for him, reports the New York Times. Gadhafi has had good ties with many African countries, including Chad, Mali, and Zimbabwe, and there have been a few pro-Gadhafi rallies around the continent, but no strong option has emerged yet. “We learned some lessons from Iraq, and one of the biggest is that Libyans have to be responsible for regime change, not us,” said one senior administration official yesterday. “What we’re simply trying to do is find some peaceful way to organize an exit, if the opportunity arises.”

But making the country-hunt even harder is that Gadhafi would probably be indictable by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 as well as atrocities in Libya, so the search is concentrating on the 22 African countries that are not signatories to the court's treaty. The African Union has also been quietly looking for an option, but hasn't found one yet. “There are aspects of the passage of time that work against Gadhafi, if we can cut him off from weapons, material, and cash,” said a national security advisor. “But it will take time for the opposition group to gel.” (More Libya stories.)