It was all valentines after the liberation of Iraq when Muammar Abu Minyar al-"Whacky"-Gaddafi came clean and abandoned terrorism and Libya's hitherto unknown (surprise!) WMD program.

CHIRAC PLEDGES 'TRUE PARTNERSHIP' WITH LIBYA

TRIPOLI Novemebr 25, 2004 (AFP) - Chirac's visit - the first by a French head of state since Libyan independence from Italy in 1951 - will give France a chance to compete for lucrative business contracts should Kadhafi make good on his promise to liberalise the economy.

Kadhafi, who welcomed Chirac as a "friend", said their talks had consolidated an alliance between two countries who wanted to distance Africa and Europe from the problems of the Middle East and America.

... His comments followed a newspaper report in which Kadhafi was quoted as saying he "never understood the reasons for France's military presence in Africa" and called Paris' recent intervention in Ivory Coast a mistake.

Chirac said his visit, which follows a long line of meetings between Kadhafi and European leaders, underscores France's will to "turn the page on a past of painful memories".

Jack perorated the usual French blandishments, soaping up the Colonel prefatory to an invasion of French trade missions:

Nous avons enfin abordé toute une série de questions régionales et internationales qui intéressent nos deux pays, et dans lesquelles la Libye joue un rôle au titre de sa triple vocation : maghrébine, méditerranéenne et africaine. La Libye a vocation naturelle à être un élément de paix et de stabilité dans l'ensemble de cette région.

[Finally we approached a whole series of regional and international questions of interest to our two countries, and in which Libya plays a part under its triple vocation: Maghrebian, Mediterranean, and African. Libya has a natural vocation to be a factor of peace and stability in this entire region.]

Ah, but that was then. And this is now.

CLAIM PAYBACKS FROM FRANCE, GADDAFI TELLS SENEGAL

DAKAR April 4, 2007 (gulfnews.com) - Wearing a green shirt and a green handkerchief - the colour of the Libyan revolution - Gaddafi addressed Senegal on Wednesday, telling its people to organise themselves into committees to claim their payback from France, their colonial master.

"The people of Africa deserve reparations for the damages and abuses that they were subjected to during colonialism," Gaddafi said on the occasion of Senegal's independence day. "Colonisation must never be repeated. We need to force the colonisers to pay."

[Emphases added.]

The French position is if you can't say something nice about French colonialism, don't say anything at all.

PFFT (What is this?): Love's labor lost 3 | Rayonnement français 0