President Obama’s address to the United Nations on Monday presented an elaborate apologia for his foreign policy, including something very few people would attempt to defend as a success: the overthrow of dictator Moammar Qaddafi in Libya.
The President said this adventure should be viewed as a example of international cooperation that staved off a massacre, before modestly allowing that the aftermath was less than optimal:
The President talked about learning “the lessons of the past” from interventions such as the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Qaddafi in Libya.
In Libya, Obama said the United States “joined an international coalition under a U.N. mandate to prevent a slaughter.”
“Even as we helped the Libyan people bring an end to the reign of a tyrant,” Obama continued, “our coalition could have, and should have, done more to fill a vacuum left behind.”
“In such efforts, the United States will always do our part,” Obama promised.