Battle Front Libya News Today

The ground. there is either going to be a stalemate or gadhafi is going to fall. and either of those cases present very serious challenges for us in terms of what were going to do here in the next month or two. >> well, senator webb, youve made a distinction now between this operation and what weve seen in the past. i understand its a useful distinction. did the briefing yesterday, the classified briefing, did that accomplish one goal in terms of informing congress? and does the presidential fin...

So you could call it a war of choice, you could call it a pragmatic intervention. i think hes a pragmatic idealist. and when hes looked at that whole selection of possible motives and hes factored in the moral calculus, because i think he genuinely felt that there was a humanitarian disaster about to happen, then he acts. that is the obama doctrine. i mean, he said in his speech that america is different. and i think insofar as people has been asking all along whether he believes in american exc...

More than likely, unless this remains a volatile combat situation for quite some time. and even then, what are we going to do? there are calls for arming the rebels. there are calls for other countries maybe to come in and become militarily involved. this is not simply the prerogative of the executive branch of the government, when you reach the situation that were in right now. >> do you think that the president has already crossed a legal line and, also, do you find encouragement in the fact t...

But the fact is, they are now cutting -- today theyre going to cut -- vote to cut 70,000 jobs from the faa, our airports are going to be a lot less safer because were not going to have the money to take care of them and not have the personnel available to keep us safe. and at some point, reason has to prevail here. and we cannot allow the tea party to rule. we just cant afford that. because all were doing is cutting off our future. >> it doesnt sound like agreement is going to break out anytime ...

Take a look at what we need to be examining over the next week or two weeks, first of all, yes, we have reports that there are cia on the ground. it depends on what theyre doing, if theyre trying to get intelligence information on the makeup of the opposition, thats certainly something that we need in order to make estimates in terms of what a future policy might be toward them. but the key questions that i see right now are, first of all, i think there were legitimate questions about the legali...

Wrong direction? we are wading into something -- i mean, it sounds funny, but its deadly serious, as you know better than anything. >> well, again, it comes back to what is it that we want to accomplish in libya? you and i had a discussion about that last week that the security council authorization, which, by the way, had five key abstentions on it, basically went to protecting civilians with this no-fly zone, and weve seen a good bit of mission creep here, or talk about mission creep. and i th...

But at the same time, it did provide a structure on these sorts of issues. it said that if you commence actions in a foreign country like this, you need to report about the legitimacy, the legal authority of the constitutionality, you, the president, of what you are doing, and then you have 60 da in which for congrs toecide etr or n tsupporth with cngssna esutn. ate sn in libya is different than a lot of the other examples that people have been talking about. traditionally, the president can tak...

Anything else that divides us. and i really hope that well raise them to the foreand, again, let other things slide for now. >> okay. mitch daniels, and when you decide, we hope we hear from you when you decide what youre doing in 2012. thanks so much for joining us today, governor. >> enjoyed it. and coming up next, president obama says there is no obama doctrine. so what is driving the presidents decision to intervene in libya but not in syria, yemen, or bahrain? "time" magazine looks at tha...

Moving in right direction. one sobering number, in order to get unemployment rate, which is 8.9%, in order to get it to 6%, you need to create 300,000 jobs for the next three straight years. very tough. >> that is very tough, indeed. well talk about that more tomorrow. thanks, chris. permit me this moment of personal privilege. our own richard engel, nbcs chief foren correspondent, honored here last night as recipient of the david bloom award at the annual congressional correspondents dinner. ...

And his colleagues. >> i was the first to be pulled from the car. no more than two steps out of the car, you realize the rebels are firing, theyre firing straight past you. you can see people running for cover. thes a guy pointing his kalashnikov right in your face and another guy firing with his from 100 meters away. anyoure trying to judge, do i just get run and get shot by this guy or stay here and get shot by those guys. theres just no right answer. >> no right answer at all. send folks into...