FR: Obama Praises Libya’s Post-Qaddafi Leaders at U.N. (9/20/2011. Blast to the past) http://bit.ly/OlHN7B #tcot
6:07 PM - 13 Sep 12 · Details
Obama Praises Libya’s Post-Qaddafi Leaders at U.N. (9/20/2011. Blast to the past)
ny times ^ | 9/20/2011 | HELENE COOPER and NEIL MacFARQUHAR
ny times ^ | 9/20/2011 | HELENE COOPER and NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Posted on Thu Sep 13 2012 18:02:17 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) by tobyhill
President Obama on Tuesday extended to Libya’s transitional leader a diplomatic honor never offered his predecessor, meeting formally with Mustafa Abdel-Jalil at the United Nations and heralding the victory of Libyan rebels who brought an end to the 42-year reign of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
It was not quite a victory lap, but it came pretty close. Mr. Obama credited his new doctrine with helping to topple the man whom Ronald Reagan once famously called the “mad dog of the Middle East.” And he held Libya up as “a lesson in what the international community can achieve when we stand together as one.”
While he cautioned that “we cannot and should not intervene every time there’s an injustice in the world,” Mr. Obama said that the international community’s action in Libya meant that after four decades, Libyan people “can walk the streets, free from a tyrant.”
Mr. Obama announced that the United States was officially reopening its embassy in Tripoli, which was closed in the early days of the conflict. The American ambassador there will be returning, he said. An advance military team has been in the Libyan capital for the past week to prepare for the reopening.
For Mr. Obama, Libya represents a much-needed foreign policy victory in the middle of trying times at home. He initially committed to the American military involvement in Libya only grudgingly, after being pressed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other members of his administration, and sought to sketch out a limited American role. But even so, the toppling of Colonel Qaddafi allows Mr. Obama to point to Libya as an example of how the United States can balance assistance to the democratic movements across the region against domestic opposition to foreign interventions, particularly during tight economic times.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
