1 of 2 | U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the nation on the situation in Libya as to why the U.S involvement is important, during nationwide television address from the National Defense University in Washington, DC on March 28, 2011. UPI/Dennis Brack/Pool |
License Photo
WASHINGTON, March 28 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama made his case for U.S. involvement in Libya but he also gave Libyan Moammar Gadhafi breathing room, a top Senate Republican said Monday.
While Obama "made a strong case" when laying out the U.S. interests in participating in the coalition effort to enforce a no-fly zone a and protect Libyan citizens from strongman Moammar Gadhafi's promised brutal retaliation, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the president's comment that Gadhafi must go but not by military means was a mistake.
"If we tell Gadhafi, 'Don't worry, you won't be removed by force,' I think that's very encouraging to Gadhafi," McCain said, reacting to Obama's speech at the National Defense University.
"If we end up where Gadhafi clings to power … we could see a re-enactment of the first Gulf War" when Saddam in power for about a decade, McCain said on CNN.
McCain called Obama's comments "puzzling" because the president previously said U.S. policy is for Gadhafi's ouster.
The reason war is waged is "to achieve what we stated," said McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Service Committee.
"I believe the rebels are succeeding," McCain said, stressing he couldn't agree with Obama's wanting Gadhafi's ouster by non-military means because "Gadhafi is a danger to the world."
McCain said maybe "Gadhafi would be thrown under the bus" by his relatives or someone else.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was less enthusiastic about Obama's explanation of the military effort and the U.S. involvement in Libya, CNN reported.
"The speech failed to provide Americans much clarity to our involvement in Libya," Boehner's spokesman, Michael Steel, said in a statement. "Nine days into this military intervention, Americans still have no answer to the fundamental question: What does success in Libya look like?"
