a headline that would have been sinister in the 1930’s, but is sort of a nice gesture right now

“Italy suspends nonagression treaty with Libya”

But it turns out to be more than symbolic. Italy apparently needed to do this to pave the way for sending peacekeeping troops to Libya later, or for allowing its airbases to be used for, say, U.S. airstrikes against the Colonel’s facilities. (I continue to think it’s a terrible idea for the U.S. to do anything here, and almost every Libyan I’ve heard quoted agrees. We don’t want even a trace of Iraq here; the revolution belongs to the Libyans.)