Obama: Gaddafi death is warning to iron-fist rulers

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama today hailed Muammar Gaddafi’s death as a warning to  authoritarian leaders across the Middle East that iron-fisted  rule “inevitably comes to an end,” and as vindication for his  cautious strategy towards Libya.
Obama joined U.S. politicians and ordinary Americans in  welcoming the demise of Gaddafi, who was for decades regarded  as a nemesis of American presidents, and he also claimed some  of the credit for the Libyan strongman’s downfall.
“This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the  people of Libya who now have the opportunity to determine their  own destiny in a new and democratic Libya,” Obama said in the  White House Rose Garden.
Obama made clear that he considered Gaddafi’s death a  vindication of his “leading from behind” strategy that had  drawn criticism at home for casting the United States in a  support role in the NATO air assault in Libya.
“Our leadership at NATO has helped guide our coalition.  Without putting a single U.S. service member on the ground, we  achieved our objectives, and our NATO mission will soon come to  an end,” Obama said in a televised statement to a U.S. public  already weary of long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The United States led the initial air strikes on Gaddafi’s  forces but quickly handed the lead over to NATO, while taking a  back seat to Britain and France.
Gaddafi’s death is unlikely to give Obama any lasting help  in a 2012 presidential election expected to be decided by the  state of the stumbling economy and stagnant job market. The  raid he ordered in May that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin  Laden gave him only a short-lived boost in the polls.
The U.S. welcome of Gaddafi’s death reflected a tortured  history with a man long viewed by Americans as a villain for  his government’s links to the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight  over Lockerbie, Scotland, and a 1986 disco bombing in Berlin  that targeted U.S. servicemen.
Obama also touted Gaddafi’s death as a stark message to  other authoritarian rulers in the Middle East where revolts  have upended longtime leaders in Egypt and Tunisia this year.
Washington has demanded that Syrian President Bashar  al-Assad halt his crackdown on democracy protests and step  down, and is pressing Yemen’s longtime president, Ali Abdullah  Saleh, to leave office in the face of political upheaval.
Obama has also condemned Iran’s human rights record and is  seeking further sanctions against Tehran over an alleged foiled  plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.
“For the region, today’s events prove once more that the  rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end,” Obama said.