http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100078538/why-did-it-take-oba ma-two-weeks-to-publicly-call-for-gaddafi-to-go-the-us-president-arrives-lat e-at-the-table-on-libya/
Why did it take Obama two weeks to publicly call for Gaddafi to go? The US president arrives late at the table on Libya By Nile Gardiner <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/nilegardiner/> World <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/category/world/> Last updated: March 3rd, 2011 59 Comments <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100078538/why-did-it-take-ob ama-two-weeks-to-publicly-call-for-gaddafi-to-go-the-us-president-arrives-la te-at-the-table-on-libya/#disqus_thread> Comment on this article <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100078538/why-did-it-take-ob ama-two-weeks-to-publicly-call-for-gaddafi-to-go-the-us-president-arrives-la te-at-the-table-on-libya/#dPostComment> <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2011/03/obnikle.jpg> It took more than a week for Obama to give a press conference on Libya (Photo: Getty) It took more than a week for Obama to give a press conference on Libya (Photo: Getty) President Obama made an emphatic statement today directly calling on Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi to "leave", in a joint press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. At the White House, the US president declared <http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/03/president-libya-violence-must-sto p-muammar-gaddafi-has-lost-legitimacy-lead-and-he-m> : The United States, and the entire world, continues to be outraged by the appalling violence against the Libyan people. The United States is helping to lead an international effort to deter further violence, put in place unprecedented sanctions to hold the Qaddafi government accountable, and support the aspirations of the Libyan people. We are also responding quickly to the urgent humanitarian needs that are developing. Going forward, we will continue to send a clear message: the violence must stop; Muammar Gaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave; those who perpetrate violence against the Libyan people will be held accountable; and the aspirations of the Libyan people for freedom, democracy and dignity must be met. But according to <http://www.politico.com/politico44/index.html?refresh=1> Politico, Barack Obama was clearly uncomfortable with addressing the Libya issue: President Obama tried to limit the number of questions he would take on Libya on Thursday by allowing just one American reporter to speak up at his appearance with Felipe Calderon of Mexico. But the reporter he chose, the AP's Ben Feller, tried to squeeze as much information out of Obama as he could, by asking Calderon one question and then a "classic two-parter" to Obama. "With a follow-up, so make it a three-parter?" Obama asked, smiling. Feller asked first about creating a so-called no-fly zone over Libya, and second about whether Obama would get involved in the NFL lockout negotiations. "Let me deal with football first," Obama decided. Significantly, this was the president's first public statement calling on Gaddafi to step down since the crisis first broke in mid-February, and his reticence to speak out on Libya has been striking. It took more than a week for the president to give a White House press conference <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/23/remarks-president-lib ya> on the Libyan issue, on February 23, after more than a thousand people had been killed, and even then he did not name Gaddafi when condemning the violence. On February 26, he expressed the view that Gaddafi had <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/26/readout-president-oba mas-call-chancellor-angela-merkel-germany> "lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now", but this was made in a private phone call to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and was not a direct appeal to the Libyan ruler. In contrast, other world leaders have been far more swift and robust in their public statements, and were not afraid to directly challenge the Libyan leader. French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a news conference in Ankara on February 25 that <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/834800 9/Libya-Nicolas-Sarkozy-calls-for-Col-Gaddafi-to-step-down.html> "Mr. Gaddafi must leave." On February 27, British Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking in Downing Street, urged Gaddafi to <http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2011/02/transcript -of-the-pm%E2%80%99s-interview-on-libya-61389> "go now", . On the same day, in Berlin, Angela Merkel called Gaddafi a "despot" and declared <http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20110227-33379.html> "it is high time for him to go". Why is it that Barack Obama is frequently the last major international leader to personally intervene on a major world issue? He displayed the same lack of leadership on Iran, where he spectacularly failed to back the protestors on the streets of Tehran who were being brutally suppressed by the Islamist regime in 2009. The White House will argue that in the case of Libya the president left the talking to his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has also been underwhelming. But there can be no substitute for the leadership of the president himself on the world stage. In their hour of need, the Libyan people have looked to the most powerful figure in the world to back their cause in the face of a brutal tyrant, but until now they have been largely met with silence. Is it any wonder that some of those now fighting Gaddafi are appealing for former president Bush <http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110303/wl_nm/us_libya_protests> to help them rather than the current occupant of the White House? And as I noted in an earlier piece <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100077875/do-tyrants-fear-am erica-anymore-president-obama%e2%80%99s-timid-foreign-policy-is-an-embarrass ment-for-a-global-superpower/> : The White House's painful navel-gazing on Libya last week, with even the French adopting a far tougher stance, is cause for grave concern. The Obama administration's timid approach to foreign policy is the last thing the world needs at a time of mounting turmoil in the Middle East, including the growing threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, and Islamist militancy on the rise from Egypt to Yemen. US leadership is now needed more than ever, but has embarrassingly gone AWOL on the world stage [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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