The overthrow of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s compound Tuesday by rebel forces was widely seen as validation of President Obama’s much-criticized intervention into a country ruled by Gadahfi for 40 years.
But many challenges lie ahead for the White House, as more questions than answers remain about who will ultimately fill the power vacuum in a country with deep-rooted American interests.
“The challenges are enormous,” said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East peace negotiator in the Clinton administration, pointing to public order and weapons proliferation, among other factors weighing on U.S. officials.
“The ultimate challenge,” he said, “is how to create out of nothing a sense of national identity and a set of working propositions to deliver legitimate authoritative governance.”
Though rebels took control of Gadhafi’s compound Tuesday, the leader and his family were nowhere to be found. Still, the rebel victory was widely seen as the stroke that ensured the end of the Gadhafi regime after 40 years in power.
Obama opted to keep U.S. troops out of Libya and instead supported NATO-led airstrikes against Gadhafi’s forces. The strategy was devised as a way to protect civilians and limit U.S. involvement, but critics claim it caused a stalemate in the democracy-seeking nation.
Republicans used the military mission in Libya to claim Obama was “leading from behind,” missing an opportunity to swiftly end the intervention.
That kind of criticism has trailed off in recent days as rebel forces rolled toward Tripoli. Republican presidential contenders were mostly muted on the issue or focused instead on the ouster of Gadhafi rather than Obama’s strategy in Libya.
Meanwhile, the images of overjoyed Libyans emerging from the dictator’s compound Tuesday served as much-needed good news for the White House.
“In the end, it appears to be working,” said Miller, a vocal critic of the president’s Libya strategy. “Building redundant coalitions will in fact guarantee that what I feared most — America owning Libya — will not happen.”
The White House, as part of an international coalition, will seek to build a Libyan national identity while avoiding many of the pitfalls that plagued a similar transition of power in Iraq.
Despite the success, a vacationing Obama has been relatively quiet about developments, citing it as a fluid situation.
In a phone call with French President Nicolas Sarkozy from his vacation spot on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama agreed that the Transitional National Council, a political body formed by anti-Gadhafi rebels, should demonstrate “leadership by respecting the rights of the people of Libya, avoiding civilian casualties [and] protecting the institutions of the Libyan state.”
Whether the general public will reward Obama for Libya is another matter altogether.
Obama’s national security credentials were bolstered in recent months with the killing of al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden, but that achievement has been largely overshadowed among voters by a stagnant economy, sinking the president’s approval rating to about 40 percent in most polls.
