Just 24 hours after freezing most of Muammar Qaddafi's American assets, Obama tightened the screws on the Libyan dictator even more, saying for the first time that Qaddafi has to go.
In a private phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Barack Obama said the embattled Libyan leader must leave the country now because he has lost the legitimacy of his rule.
Mr. Obama made the comments to Merkel Saturday as they discussed the violence in Libya. The White House says President Obama told Merkel that when a leader's only means of holding power is to use violence against his people, then he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what's right for his country by "leaving now."
This is a pretty significant departure from the situations in Egypt and Tunisia, where the White House didn't publicly call for the strongmen to go. Instead, it applied not-so-gentle pressure to institute reforms.
Apologies for the short diary--this just broke.
Updated by Christian Dem in NC at Sat Feb 26, 2011, 06:10:32 PM
People have wondered "why not sooner?" Well, there were several hundred Americans still in Libya, and anyone crazy enough to use heavy weapons on his own people wouldn't blink at taking hostages.