NATO's onslaught on Libya unjustified

Henchmen for Libya's Moammar Gadhafi on Monday dismissed arrest warrants issued against him by the international war crimes court as inconsequential with little near-term prospect of being carried out. But such confidence in a future without punitive measures is perhaps no more than posturing on the part of despots. Amid the turbulence of Arab Spring rebellions, the fate of once seemingly entrenched dictators has become uncertain, to say the very least. "The ICC [International Criminal Court] has no legitimacy whatsoever," Gadhafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Monday. "We will deal with it." Indeed, with NATO bombs pounding Tripoli (reportedly killing one of Gadhafi's sons and three grandchildren in April) and growing western impatience with the four-month war, the prospect of a Hague trial on charges of crimes against humanity may seem little threat to the leader compared with other exit scenarios.
Amid the usual stream of bravado from Tripoli, however, reasons abound for Gadhafi to be anxious about how this may end for him.
And not just the Libyan leader. Syria strongman Bashar al-Assad sounded equal parts conciliatory and defiant as he called for a "national dialogue" in a televised speech last week. Though he blamed the violence that has killed more than 1,000 people in three months of anti-government unrest on foreign-directed saboteurs, Damascus notably permitted an opposition gathering in the capital on Monday. Yemen's ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh, a one-time close ally in the U.S. war against terrorism, has yet to return from medical treatment in Saudi Arabia after being badly wounded in a rocket attack on his presidential palace in Sana earlier this month.
Saudi Arabia has also become home to Tunisia's Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who fled anti-government protests in January in the first of the Arab Spring democratic revolutions. Last week, Ben Ali, described in U.S. diplomatic cables as the head of "the Family," was convicted in absentia on charges of embezzling a fortune in cash and jewelry from the North African nation he ruled for more than three decades.
Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, who in February followed Ben Ali in fallen Arab strongmen, is also facing criminal prosecution. He and his two sons are due to go on trial in August. Mubarak could face the death penalty, Egypt's Justice Minister has said.