Libya's actions can bolster Gadhafi's words

It has been remarked that if you live long enough, you'll see everything.

A recent news report on longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi falls into that category. In a two-hour speech on the anniversary of his 1969 seizure of power, Gadhafi declared his nation is no longer a rogue state.

Gadhafi said his nation's policy toward the United States and Israel will follow the line of the African Union -- a new grouping of African nations to which Libya belongs.

"Now, no one can say Libya is a rogue state," he said. "This is an African policy. ... In the old days, they called us a rogue state. They were right in accusing us of that. In the old days, we had a revolutionary behavior."

Gadhafi disclosed that Libya had detained some Islamic fundamentalists and former fighters from Afghanistan who were thought to be connected to al-Qaida. He says these detainees will be treated in the same manner that the United States is treating our terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

If it turns out that his actions continue to back up these startling words, these will prove stunning developments of great historical importance.

Libya will have moved from an outlaw nation sponsoring terrorism, against which we have had to take aggressive and warlike moves, to one that will in some measure cooperate with the international war on terror, all in the last 20 years.

If it pans out, this will be a remarkable triumph of American foreign policy.

For now, Gadhafi must be taken at his word.