Failure to act in Libya would have cost America dearly: Obama

Defending his decision to go for military operation to enforce the no-flying zone and protection of civilians in Libya, US President Barack Obama said that a failure to do so would have dearly cost the United States of America.

"While I will never minimise the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America," Obama said in his address to the nation.

"For generations, the United States of America has played a unique role as an anchor of global security and advocate for human freedom. Mindful of the risks and costs of military action, we are naturally reluctant to use force to solve the world's many challenges. But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act. That is what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks."

The US president said confronted by brutal repression and a looming humanitarian crisis by the Gaddafi regime, he ordered warships into the Mediterranean.

European allies declared their willingness to commit resources to stop the killing. The Libyan opposition and the Arab League appealed to the world to save lives, he said.

"At my direction, America led an effort with our allies at the UN Security Council to pass a historic resolution that authorised a no-flying zone to stop the regime's attacks from the air, and further authorised all necessary measures to protect the Libyan people," he said.

"Ten days ago, having tried to end the violence without using force, the international community offered Gaddafi a final chance to stop his campaign of killing, or face the consequences. Rather than stand down, his forces continued their advance, bearing down on the city of Benghazi, home to nearly 700,000 men, women and children who sought their freedom from fear," Obama said.

At this point, the US and the world faced a choice, Obama said, adding that Gaddafi declared that he would show "no mercy" to his own people.

"He (Gaddafi) compared them to rats, and threatened to go door to door to inflict punishment. In the past, we had seen him hang civilians in the streets, and kill over a thousand people in a single day. Now, we saw regime forces on the outskirts of the city. We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world," he said.

"It was not in our national interest to let that happen. I refused to let that happen. And so nine days ago, after consulting the bipartisan leadership of Congress, I authorised military action to stop the killing and enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1973. We struck regime forces approaching Benghazi to save that city and the people within it," he said.

"We hit Gaddafi's troops in neighboring Ajdabiya, allowing the opposition to drive them out. We hit his air defences, which paved the way for a No Fly Zone. We targeted tanks and military assets that had been choking off towns and cities and we cut off much of their source of supply. And tonight, I can report that we have stopped Gaddafi's deadly advance," Obama said.

America has an important strategic interest in preventing Gaddafi from overrunning those who oppose him, he said.

A massacre would have driven thousands of additional refugees across Libya's borders, putting enormous strains on the peaceful - yet fragile - transitions in Egypt and Tunisia, he remarked.

The democratic impulses that are dawning across the region would be eclipsed by the darkest form of dictatorship, as repressive leaders concluded that violence is the best strategy to cling to power, Obama said.

"The writ of the UN Security Council would have been shown to be little more than empty words, crippling its future credibility to uphold global peace and security," he added.