Obama: Gadhafi must go

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama insisted Thursday that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi leave office, declaring he had lost his authority to lead. Obama also announced that U.S. military aircraft would play a humanitarian role by flying Egyptians who had fled Libya home to Egypt from makeshift camps in Tunisia.

"Moammar Gadhafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave," Obama declared at a White House news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Obama offered his most extensive remarks on the Libya crisis on a day when rebels strengthened their hold on the strategic oil installation at Brega after repelling an attempt by Gadhafi loyalists to retake it.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/03/2095618/reality-leads-us-to-temper-its.html#ixzz1FZ6H2FoD

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/03/2095618/reality-leads-us-to-temper-its.html

[HereSince1628]

1. I hope he says this at some future point about Walker...

[lunatica]

2. I think he should leave that to the citizens of Wisconsin

Other than it's really not Obama's business to meddle in States' legislation, why rob Wisconsinites of the pleasure (and duty) of recalling Walker?

[HereSince1628]

3. Well, we all get to have our opinions. Thanks for yours.

[backtomn]

4. Yes.....I agree....

Governor Walker should not be allowed to bomb, shoot, and murder citizens. ; (

[Veronica.Franco]

9. Walker will leave by recall ...

He's toast ...

[HereSince1628]

10. I hope, and just about that time, I would hope that Obama will

say the people have spoken, Walker must go.

It's a hope, but every project starts with hope.

[Peace Patriot]

5. As with "Saddam Hussein," Obama is not talking about Gaddafi, he's talking about thousands,

if not tens of thousands, of Libyans, both civilians and a large faction of the military, who side with Gaddifi in this CIVIL WAR.

This is NOT Egypt. This is a SHOOTING WAR between factions and tribes within Libya. And to say "Gaddafi must go" is the same as Bush saying "Saddam must go" which IN TRUTH meant the slaughter of one hundred thousand innocent people in the first weeks of bombing alone, in Iraq--not to mention the horrors that followed.

Get it? How "personalizing" situations where the U.S. wants hegemony (re Iraq's oil or Libya's oil), by focusing on an easily demonized leader, gets us into wars against our will, and against our best interests?

What would be best for Libya (and for everyone) is a peace negotiation. Venezuela's president, Chavez, might be able to get Gaddafi and the large faction of the military that is backing Gaddafi, to the negotiating table, because he has refrained from condemning Gaddafi. Obama seems to be doing the opposite--setting up a U.S./NATO invasion of Libya, in which MANY MORE Libyans will be killed, and the U.S., once again, will be trying to occupy and control a divided, rebellious Islamic country, with lots of oil.

I HOPE that isn't what Obama is doing. But, instead of saying "Gaddafi must go," why isn't he appealing to the two military factions for an armistice? Why isn't he talking about peace? Why isn't he talking about TALK? Why is he saying something that is bound to entrench the pro-Gaddafi military? It sounds like war talk to me. And I am hoping against hope that Chavez's peace negotiation plan pre-empts a U.S./NATO invasion. I see no good coming out of an invasion AT ALL.

[Proletariatprincess]

7. I agree 100%.

Thank you for the good post.

[EFerrari]

8. Yep. Libya is not Egypt. n/t

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. Chavez' negotiation plan is irrelevant; the opposition have rejected it

they want Gaddafi gone too. Doesn't mean they want Western military intervention, but negotiation is probably off the table.

Libya's rebel leaders have ruled out any attempt by Hugo Chávez to broker a truce between them and Muammar Gaddafi, whom they insist must leave the country.

"No one has told us a thing about it and we are not interested anyway," said the spokesman of the national committee in Benghazi, Abdul Hafif Goga. "We will never negotiate with him."

The rebel leadership said the international community had yet to inform them of any initiative from the Venezuelan president, who reportedly contacted the embattled Libyan leader earlier this week in a bid to enter the fortnight-long violent standoff.

"Talk of peace is far too late," said a second member of the organising committee, Salwa Bogheiga. "A lot of people have died and there is no one to negotiate with. They lost that right when they started killing people on 17 February."

The nascent rebel committee in Benghazi and the military leadership that jointly run the eastern side of the country insist that they are now too committed to consider any sort of ceasefire. They say that Gaddafi would use it to re-organise his loyalist troops for a major assault on rebel-held cities.
More...

[thereismore]

6. Let me be cynical for a moment - now that Gadhafi bombed oil areas, it's time to go! nt

[Posteritatis]

11. They've been saying it's time to go for some days before that. (nt)

[Vinee]

12. fucklin' A it is. nt