{"id":24539,"date":"2016-04-12T01:28:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T01:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/president-obama-says-libya-aftermath-worst\/"},"modified":"2016-04-12T01:28:43","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T01:28:43","slug":"president-obama-says-libya-aftermath-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/president-obama-says-libya-aftermath-worst\/","title":{"rendered":"President Obama says Libya aftermath ‘worst mistake’ of reign"},"content":{"rendered":"

{President says his biggest credit was \u2018saving the economy from depression\u2019 and health scheme.}<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama says the biggest mistake of his presidency was a lack of planning for the aftermath of the fall of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, with the country spiralling into chaos and grappling with violent extremists.<\/p>\n

Asked in a Fox News interview aired on Sunday to name the \u201cworst mistake\u201d of his presidency, the US leader said it was \u201cprobably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Obama has repeatedly acknowledged that the United States and its allies could have done more to prevent Libya\u2019s descent into chaos following the Nato-backed uprising that led to Gaddafi\u2019s ouster and killing in November 2011.<\/p>\n

He expressed regret over the handling of the aftermath in a lengthy interview with The Atlantic magazine last month, calling the situation in Libya \u201ca mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Obama also sharply criticised British Prime Minister David Cameron and former French leader Nicolas Sarkozy for their roles in the Libya campaign, saying in particular that Mr Cameron became \u201cdistracted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Gaddafi\u2019s death, Libya has descended into near-anarchy, ruled by rival militias vying for power while the Islamic State group has gained influence in the country.<\/p>\n

The head of a UN-backed unity government arrived earlier this month in Tripoli to begin garnering support for his administration.<\/p>\n

Asked by Fox News to name the worst moment of his White House tenure, the president said it was the day he travelled to Newtown, Connecticut, after a gunman shot 20 young children and six adult staff members at an elementary school in December 2012.<\/p>\n

His biggest accomplishment? \u201cSaving the economy from a great depression.\u201d<\/p>\n

And his best day in the White House?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day that we passed health care reform,\u201d Mr Obama said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat out on the Truman Balcony with all the staff that had worked so hard on it and I knew what it would mean for the families that I\u2019d met who didn\u2019t have health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what he most looked forward to upon leaving office next year, Obama replied: \u201cBeing able to take a walk outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"US<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{President says his biggest credit was \u2018saving the economy from depression\u2019 and health scheme.} President Barack Obama says the biggest mistake of his presidency was a lack of planning for the aftermath of the fall of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, with the country spiralling into chaos and grappling with violent extremists. Asked in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24539"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24539"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}