A defiant US President Barack Obama on Monday told Americans he had stopped a “massacre” in Libya, but bluntly warned that trying to oust Muammar Qaddafi by force could repeat the carnage of Iraq.
“As president, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action,” Obama said, mounting a robust defense of his decision to rain air strikes on Qaddafi’s troops in a UN-mandated bid to protect civilians.
Obama spoke after Libyan rebels, enabled by pounding air attacks by international fighter jets, grabbed back government-held territory, and on the eve of a major international conference in London dedicated to Libya’s future.
Photo: AFP
The president, in a major televised address at the National Defense University in Washington, also denied he had ceded leadership to US allies and failed to lay out a clear strategy for war-weary Americans.
“In just one month, the United States has worked with our international partners to mobilize a broad coalition, secure an international mandate to protect civilians, stop an advancing army, prevent a massacre, and establish a no-fly zone with our allies and partners,” Obama said.
Faced with a man who compared his people to “rats” and who had hanged “civilians in the streets,” Obama said he had seen no choice but to act against Qaddafi’s forces as they bore down on the key city of Benghazi.
He said the city could have suffered “a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.”
“I refused to let that happen,” said Obama, who came to power vowing to get US troops home from Iraq and eventually Afghanistan, but has found himself launching a new military adventure abroad on his own watch.
“To brush aside America’s responsibility as a leader — and more profoundly — our responsibilities to our fellow human beings ... would have been a betrayal of who were are,” he said.
The president said US “interests and values” were at stake in the crisis, in an apparent response to those who question whether Libya represents a vital threat to the US.
Obama did not, however, sketch out an end game for the conflict, as critics warn that he may have taken sides in an intractable Middle Eastern civil war, and fear a blow to US credibility unless Qaddafi is ousted.
He made clear he wants Qaddafi gone, but warned that pursuing a military quest for regime change would backfire and exact a terrible price.
“If we tried to overthrow Qaddafi by force, our coalition would splinter,” Obama said.
“We would likely have to put US troops on the ground, or risk killing many civilians from the air. To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq. Regime change there took eight years, thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya.”
Top international powers including Britain and France were scheduled to meet in London yesterday to assess the success of the coalition effort against Qaddafi and to consider how to oust the long-time leader through non-military means.
The US and its partners have levied punishing financial and diplomatic sanctions on the Libyan regime, seized billions of dollars in assets and are policing an arms embargo.
Obama said a “badly weakened” Qaddafi could hang on for some time, saying Libya would remain “dangerous” with him still around.
However, he warned Qaddafi was on the wrong side of history.
“The transition to a government that is responsive to the Libyan people will be a difficult task,” Obama said, adding that it was up to the international community to join the US in a rebuilding effort.
The president also sought to explain his criteria for committing US power abroad, as analysts seek to map out an “Obama doctrine” as revolts sweep the Middle East.
He said he would never shrink from using force decisively and unilaterally if the US homeland was threatened, but said the US could also deploy its military in situations when it was not at risk, for instance to prevent genocide.
However, Obama also said he would seek the support of allies in such cases, telling Americans who have seen a decade of war: “The burden of action should not be America’s alone.”
Obama’s speech was partly an answer to a storm of criticism in recent days, especially from lawmakers who argued they were not fully consulted on the Libyan operation.
Republican Senator John -McCain welcomed Obama’s explanation of the US intervention in Libya, but said his comment that regime change by force was not on the table was “puzzling.”
“Qaddafi must have been -somewhat comforted by that,” Mcain said.
Senator John Cornyn, McCain’s Republican colleague on the key Senate Committee on Armed Services, meanwhile blasted the president for coming before the American public too late after engaging in the Libya conflict.
“Obama failed to explain why he unilaterally took our nation to war without bothering to make the case to the US Congress,” Cornyn said in a statement, adding that the administration was now “splitting the difference — telling us Qaddafi must go, but refusing to do what it takes to remove him.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese