President Obama took a break from his vacation Monday afternoon to address the news that rebel forces have overtaken Tripoli, thus drawing one step closer to ousting longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi from power.
Speaking on the grounds of Blue Heron farm in Martha’s Vineyard, Obama shared broad details from a conversation he had earlier with National Security Council officials, as well as British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Though he warned that the situation in Libya is still “very fluid,” the President said that it is clear that “the Gadhafi regime is coming to an end and the future of Libya is in the hands of its people.”
“Over the last several days the situation in Libya has reached a tipping point,” Obama added. “For over four decades the Libyan people had lived under the rule of a tyrant who denied them their most basic human rights. Now the celebrations that we have seen in the streets of Libya shows that the pursuit of human dignity is far stronger than any dictator.”
The President ended his remarks, which lasted roughly eight minutes, by issuing a reminder that the effort to remove Gadhafi is not over yet.