Washington: President Barack Obama on Thursday 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 toward Libya.
Obama joined US 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 US 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 US 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 US 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 US 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.
Partner to libya
Obama said the United States would be a partner to Libya's interim government and urged a swift transition to democratic elections, but he made no specific promises of aid.
Relatives of American victims of the flight blown up over Lockerbie by Libyan agents 23 years ago said justice was served with Gaddafi's death as he fled his home town and final bastion.
"I hope he's in hell with Hitler," said Kathy Tedeschi, whose first husband Bill Daniels was among the 270 people killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Politicians across the spectrum also welcomed Gaddafi's death, which could help Obama undercut Republican efforts to question his national security credentials in his 2012 reelection bid.
Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, who once called Obama's Libya strategy "muddled," said "the world is a better place with Gaddafi gone."
"The death of Muammar Gaddafi marks an end to the first phase of the Libyan revolution," said Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.
Senator Carl Levin, a senior Democrat, said, "The success of the Libyan people in rising up to overthrow a tyrant is a blow against dictatorship everywhere."
Obama had faced criticism for an initially slow response to the Libyan uprising and then set strict limits on the US role in the NATO air assault, which was sanctioned by the United Nations as a means of stopping the massacre of civilians.
But the White House felt its approach bore fruit when rebel forces took Tripoli, and it used Gaddafi's death to reinforce that argument.
Despite that, Republicans were not expected to ease their accusations that Obama has undermined US global prestige with a "leading from behind" approach to "Arab spring" popular revolts that have engulfed friends and foes alike.
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