Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy: no let-up in Libya until Gaddafi departs

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

US president reverses previously cautious approach to Libyan conflict and signs America up to more muscular intervention
Allegra Stratton, political correspondent | Friday April 15 2011

President Obama today signals the return of America to the forefront of the international effort in Libya, writing a joint article with David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy in which the three leaders commit their countries to pursue military action until Colonel Gaddafi has been removed.

In the joint article, Obama reverses America's earlier cautious approach to the conflict – which saw the US hand control to Nato and withdraw fighter planes just days after the intervention began – and signs up his country to the more muscular intervention of his European colleagues.

Obama's new interest could transform the efforts of the international community after three days of talks in the Gulf state of Qatar in effect came to nothing.

Writing in Washington Post, the Times and Le Figaro, the three leaders say the world would have committed an "unconscionable betrayal" if the Libyan leader is left in place, putting rebels who have been fighting against the Gaddafi regime at the mercy of his government. If left, Libya risks becoming a failed state, they write.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/15/obama-sarkozy-cameron-libya

---

The White House, Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 14, 2011

Joint Op-ed by President Obama, Prime Minister Cameron and President Sarkozy: ‘Libya's Pathway to Peace’

The op-ed below by President Barack Obama, Prime Minister David Cameron and President Nicolas Sarkozy will appear in tomorrow’s International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro, and Times of London. The piece can be read online http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/opinion/15iht-edlibya15.html?_r=2&ref=global">HERE.

Libya’s Pathway to Peace
Joint Op-ed by Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy

Together with our NATO allies and coalition partners, the United States, France and Britain have been united from the start in responding to the crisis in Libya, and we are united on what needs to happen in order to end it.

Even as we continue our military operations today to protect civilians in Libya, we are determined to look to the future. We are convinced that better times lie ahead for the people of Libya, and a pathway can be forged to achieve just that.

We must never forget the reasons why the international community was obliged to act in the first place. As Libya descended into chaos with Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi attacking his own people, the Arab League called for action. The Libyan opposition called for help. And the people of Libya looked to the world in their hour of need. In an historic resolution, the United Nations Security Council authorized all necessary measures to protect the people of Libya from the attacks upon them. By responding immediately, our countries, together with an international coalition, halted the advance of Qaddafi’s forces and prevented the bloodbath that he had promised to inflict upon the citizens of the besieged city of Benghazi.

Tens of thousands of lives have been protected. But the people of Libya are still suffering terrible horrors at Qaddafi’s hands each and every day. His rockets and shells rained down on defenseless civilians in Ajdabiya. The city of Misurata is enduring a medieval siege, as Qaddafi tries to strangle its population into submission. The evidence of disappearances and abuses grows daily.

Our duty and our mandate under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 is to protect civilians, and we are doing that. It is not to remove Qaddafi by force. But it is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Qaddafi in power. The International Criminal Court is rightly investigating the crimes committed against civilians and the grievous violations of international law. It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government. The brave citizens of those towns that have held out against forces that have been mercilessly targeting them would face a fearful vengeance if the world accepted such an arrangement. It would be an unconscionable betrayal.

Furthermore, it would condemn Libya to being not only a pariah state, but a failed state too. Qaddafi has promised to carry out terrorist attacks against civilian ships and airliners. And because he has lost the consent of his people any deal that leaves him in power would lead to further chaos and lawlessness. We know from bitter experience what that would mean. Neither Europe, the region, or the world can afford a new safe haven for extremists.

There is a pathway to peace that promises new hope for the people of Libya — a future without Qaddafi that preserves Libya’s integrity and sovereignty, and restores her economy and the prosperity and security of her people. This needs to begin with a genuine end to violence, marked by deeds not words. The regime has to pull back from the cities it is besieging, including Ajdabiya, Misurata and Zintan, and return to their barracks. However, so long as Qaddafi is in power, NATO must maintain its operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds. Then a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process can really begin, led by a new generation of leaders. In order for that transition to succeed, Qaddafi must go and go for good. At that point, the United Nations and its members should help the Libyan people as they rebuild where Qaddafi has destroyed — to repair homes and hospitals, to restore basic utilities, and to assist Libyans as they develop the institutions to underpin a prosperous and open society.

This vision for the future of Libya has the support of a broad coalition of countries, including many from the Arab world. These countries came together in London on March 29 and founded a Contact Group which met this week in Doha to support a solution to the crisis that respects the will of the Libyan people.

Today, NATO and our partners are acting in the name of the United Nations with an unprecedented international legal mandate. But it will be the people of Libya, not the U.N., who choose their new constitution, elect their new leaders, and write the next chapter in their history.
Britain, France and the United States will not rest until the United Nations Security Council resolutions have been implemented and the Libyan people can choose their own future.

Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States, David Cameron is prime minister of Britain and Nicolas Sarkozy is president of France.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/14/joint-op-ed-president-obama-prime-minister-cameron-and-president-sarkozy

[Wilms]

1. How long was Saddam pinned before he dearly departed?

[Hugabear]

2. So....just how long are we planning on keeping up this charade?

How long are we going to pretend that we can force Ghadaffi to leave simply by dropping a bunch of bombs? The rebel resistance doesn't look like it's going to get the job done, at least not without massive and active help from outside.

[Duende azul]

3. Obama on board with two of Europe's most ugly rightwing a**holes.

and Berlusconi is also in.

Makes you wonder?

Btw: where did the Security council resolution mention regime change again?

[No Elephants]

4. "President Obama today signals the return of America...." Return?

[Baclava]

5. I'll believe it when I see it, meanwhile - Hillary tells Britain and France to piss off

NATO states buck French, British call over Libya

BERLIN (Reuters) – The United States and European NATO allies rebuffed French and British calls Thursday to contribute more actively to ground strikes in the air war in Libya despite fears of a military stalemate.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told NATO ministers meeting in Berlin it was vital for the alliance to maintain "resolve and unity" against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. But she gave no indication Washington was prepared to re-engage fully in ground strikes. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, brushed aside French and British complaints about the pace of air strikes

Spain said it had no plan to join the seven of the 28 NATO states that have been involved in ground strikes. Italy, the former colonial power in Libya, said it would need to hear convincing arguments for it to do so.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said after talks with Clinton in Berlin that the United States was not going to review its military position on Libya despite a request from Paris.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110414/wl_nm/us_libya_nato

[_ed_]

6. It's too bad Quaddafi doesn't have two sadistic, evil sons

Then we could just lift the script from Iraq wholesale.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. +1

:thumbsup:

[EFerrari]

7. Kick

[PurityOfEssence]

9. Once again, they pat themselves on the back for saving "tens of thousands" from massacre

Yes, they're Count Bernadotte, Angelo Roncali and Gandhi themselves.

How many times do we have to accept speculation as hard fact? We're so damned cocksure we KNOW everything that would have happened, and we somehow know enough about this very complex situation that we can amble around with this casual off-hours non-war seemingly forever.

Yep, Qaddafi's going to just be a fine fellow about it and bow out at some point. That's just like the assumption that the Republicans will eventually do the moral thing about taxation and responsibility. Then again, though, the supposition comes from the same person.

As the bodies mount, apologists and staunch supporters will stack up these imaginary bodies they saved by their steadfast, self-congratulatory altruism against the REAL dead people from the lingering war they've created. It will happen. Anyone questioning such "truth" will be harangued from the square. Suggesting that exaggeration or misleading happened will be met with the kind of retaliation one would expect if one had bludgeoned Tinkerbell to death with a Peace Prize in broad daylight during an Easter Egg Hunt.

Since when did fantasy futures carry more weight of truth than the actual deaths of once-living human beings? How can mass delusion like this even be countered? Are we now so numb to hyperbole and the blurring of reality that anything is anything,and the only thing that matters is shutting up those who mess with our fantasy?

This is not going to end well.

[jakeXT]

10. I'm honestly impressed, especially with the war game of Southern Mistral

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=807154&mesg_id=807253


The 'Southern Mistral' war games called for Great Britain-French air strikes against an unnamed dictator of a fictional country, "Southland." The pretend attack was authorized by a pretend United Nations Security Council Resolution. The 'Southern Mistral' war games were set for March 21-25, 2011.

On March 19, 2011, the United States joined France and Great Britain in an air attack against Muammar Gaddafi's Libya pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

[Fool Count]

11. Wanna bet that out of the four of them Qaddafi will be the last

to depart?

[classysassy]

12. Why

are we placing our men,women and money in harms way when we have bigger fish to fry,the tax evading criminals in this country and the five crooks on the supreme court,the union buster that are bank rolled by corrupt money changers?Wake up America the rich criminals and their paid shills are destroying the middle class before our very eyes and we continue to fight among our selves as the pillage and plunder continues," Oh what fools we mortals be "

[Zorra]

13. H2O Man's GD Survey #2 on Libya. Did we predict this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x780470