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The resolution of the Lockerbie case, along with Gaddafi’s subsequent admission and renunciation of a covert nuclear and chemical weapons programme, paved the way for a significant warming of relations between Tripoli and western powers in the 21st century. The domestication of the erstwhile “mad dog” was held up as one of the few positive results of US President George W Bush’s military invasion of Iraq in 2003. The argument went that Gaddafi had watched the fate of fellow miscreant Saddam Hussein, hanged by Iraqis after a US-instigated legal process, and had learnt a sobering lesson.
