Graham: Obama waited too long on Gadhafi

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday President Obama waited too long to get involved in the fight against Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya.

He criticized Obama for working within NATO and being involved with the no-fly zone, saying the president was essentially "leading from behind."

"He came in to the game after Gadhafi reemerged and started killing by the thousands of his own people. But this whole period of time where he was left unattended, the war lasted longer, more Libyans got killed," Graham said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

"When you take American air power off of the table, NATO is a much weaker force and these thousands of surface-to-air missiles that are now compromised and chemical caches that were broken into, are result of the war lasting too long. ... If you go to war, go to win."

Graham says he agrees with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's suggestion of an investigation into Gadhafi's death as a possible war crime. He said, though, without the use of Gitmo, the United States has no jail to detain high-value targets.

"So, let's investigate what happened to Gadhafi, but let's have a detention policy to protect Americans. Let's stop reading terrorists the Miranda rights," he said. "This president for the last year and half has made some very poor national security decisions that I'm afraid were going to come back to haunt this country. I hope I'm wrong."