Local boy makes good

Nicholas Kristof has an opinion column in The New York Times:

When I entered Libya last week from Tunisia, a rebel soldier named Ayman objected that I didn’t have a visa. I pointed out that his force had overthrown the government that issued visas. But, in this kind of a stalemate, the guy with the gun wins. And the guy with the gun was Ayman. Eventually, he came up with a solution. I would give him a ride to his hometown, Zawarah, and the visa requirement would disappear. I gritted my teeth and told him to jump in.
That incident points to a fear that many Americans have of the Libyan rebels. Are they just goons who will create their own tyranny or chaos? Particularly after we embraced Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, only to see him engulfed by corruption, it’s fair to ask whether the Libyan rebels will do any better. The uncertainties are real. But, after my recent visit to Libya, I’m guardedly optimistic.
What’s particularly impressive is the paucity of revenge killings and looting in Tripoli, the capital. There have been a few incidents in which rebel soldiers apparently executed prisoners, and black Africans have been treated abysmally (they are accused of being mercenaries for Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi). But the Libyans who served in that hated regime mostly have not been molested.
I saw many Libyans fleeing for Tunisia, and, presumably, many of them were Qaddafi loyalists. But rebels did not hinder them at checkpoints or pilfer their belongings. And, as far as I could tell, the homes and luxury vehicles the loyalists left behind have been mostly untouched by neighbors and rebels alike. In addition, I went through dozens of armed rebel checkpoints and was never once asked for baksheesh, meaning a bribe or gift.
What we know of the top rebel leadership is also reasonably encouraging. Mahmoud Jibril, the acting prime minister of the rebels’ Transitional National Council, earned his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh and taught there, too. As for Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the acting chairman of the council, he is a former justice minister who challenged Colonel Qaddafi by calling for the release of political prisoners. Ali Tarhouni, the finance minister, is a former economist at the University of Washington.
Some Americans have fretted that Islamic extremists will take over Libya, but very few of the rebel leaders have been associated with Islamic fundamentalism. One exception is Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a military commander in Tripoli, who says he was tortured by the CIA in 2004. Yet he told my Times colleague Rod Nordland that all is forgiven, and that he appreciates the American role in the Libyan revolution.
Frankly, any representative Libyan government needs to include fundamentalists like Belhaj, who were particularly brave in standing up to the Qaddafi regime. The mood in Libya is both pro-Islam and pro-Western.
Occasionally, I ran into Libyan-Americans who traveled to Libya to join the revolution; I called one rebel outside my hotel “Texas”, because that’s where he learned his drawl.
Then there’s Dr. Rida Mazagri, a neurosurgeon from West Virginia who returned to his native Libya to care for patients in rebel-held areas. Mazagri was seized by Qaddafi forces, and nothing was heard of him for five months. Many of us assumed that he was dead, but then rebels freed him from a prison in Tripoli and he has just returned to a hero’s welcome in West Virginia.
The mood in Tripoli seems largely tolerant and forgiving, and exuberant about the prospect of democracy. “We are free now,” an engineer named Belgassim Ali told me. “Make a newspaper to support Qaddafi; I don’t mind. But no dictatorship!”
It’s true that the rebels are atomized in small armed groups, and some roll their eyes at the rebel council. Most have little experience in governing, and they squabble among themselves. Then again, the rebels have coordinated disparate fighting units and have tried to arrange the surrender of holdout towns like Surt, Qaddafi’s hometown, rather than just marching in with guns blazing. Libya’s new government will also have the advantage of access to tens of billions of dollars in frozen funds and to the oil that makes Libya one of the richest countries in the region.
I’m a believer in humanitarian intervention to avert genocide or mass atrocities— when the stars align, as I believe they did in Libya— so maybe I’m deluding myself to justify our bombing campaign. Yet it seems to me that the NATO military intervention prevented a massacre in Benghazi, saved countless Libyan lives, and has put the country on a track of hope.
Countries like the United States, France, Britain, and Qatar did something historic in supporting a military operation that was largely about preserving lives, not national interests. While plenty can still go wrong, my sense is that Libya is muddling along toward a future far better than its oppressive past.

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