U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today said that the end of Gaddafi would mean the end of fighting altogether in Libya during an interview with Whit Johnson of CBS.
During the interview, Ms. Clinton stated that Gaddafi’s death would mean a lot to NTC.
Clinton: Defeat Gaddafi To Build Libya
Mrs. Clinton was pushing for the rebels to capture?Gaddafi. She said, “They were fighting so hard to get Sirte, which is Gaddafi’s hometown, and to try to end the fighting phase of their revolution and begin the building phase.”
She added, “And they knew that if Gaddafi remains at large, he will continue to buy mercenaries, to cause problems for them, and if they know that he is no longer a threat to them, I think that will actually ease the transition process into a new government.”
Ms. Clinton also said the fighters who streamed out of Sirte, the families of the fighters, there is going to be a population of people – a small one, but nevertheless one that has to be contended with – who believe they were better off because of Gaddafi.
“If you were from Sirte, where he just put money everywhere he could to make his hometown feel better, you’re going to be more concerned about a non-Gaddafi regime than if you are from Bengazi, which he totally neglected and really did everything he could to break. So yes, there will be some, but I think it will be limited if Gaddafi is not active. I think a lot of people will find a reason to reconcile and move forward in a new Libya.” – Ms. Clinton
She stressed that there’s also a concern as to how they disarm – or how the Libyans disarm everybody who has weapons, because most of the people who were doing the fighting had never even fired a gun before.
“They were doctors and businesspeople and dentists and lawyers and students. And so they’re now awash with weapons in Libya, and a lot of the warehouses of all the weapons that Gaddafi had stocked have either gone missing or are in hands of those who need to be disarmed.” – Ms. Clinton
She noted that it’s a big concern for the United States, it’s a big concern for the Libyans.
