Fw: *DHR* One reason for Obama's decision on Libya: Rwanda

 

Mar 24, 2011 One reason for Obama's decision on Libya: Rwanda 11:59 AM By David Jackson, USA TODAY (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/03/one-reason-for-obamas-decision-on-libya-rwanda/1) 373 Comments 5 Recommend One apparent reason President Obama decided to take action in Libya: A lack of action 17 years ago in Rwanda. Some members of Obama's national security team also worked for President Bill Clinton, who has said his biggest regret was not intervening in 1994 when the Rwandan government killed hundreds of thousands of people. Clinton said his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton -- then first lady, now secretary of State -- advocated intervention in Rwanda. He is a prominent supporter of the Libya action. Susan Rice, Obama's United Nations ambassador and a National Security Council staff member during the Clinton years has expressed regret for Rwanda. According to Time magazine, Rice told Harvard scholar Samantha Power, "I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required." U.N. ambassador Susan Rice. CAPTION By Monika Graff, Getty Images Power, author of a book called A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, is a member of Obama's national security staff and a major advocate of action in Libya. In the days since the United States and allies began setting up a no-fly zone over Libya with a series of airstrikes, Obama and aides have repeatedly invoked the specter of genocide in deciding to act against dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Speaking in El Salvador on Tuesday, Obama said there is an American interest in stepping in "where a brutal dictator is threatening his people and saying he will show no mercy and go door-to-door hunting people down." Samantha Power and President Obama CAPTION By Carolyn Kaster, AP Obama didn't mention Rwanda specifically, but he said the United Nations, the Arab League and other countries "are saying we need to intercede to make sure that a disaster doesn't happen on our watch as has happened in the past when the international community stood idly by." Today, the White House promoted an op-ed column by an interested spectator: Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who titled his piece, "Rwandans know why Gadhafi must be stopped." "My country is still haunted by memories of the international community looking away," Kagame wrote. "No country knows better than my own the costs of the international community failing to intervene to prevent a state killing its own people." See photos of: Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Clinton, Rwanda, Moammar Gadhafi

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