Dithering On Libya News Today

Joint chiefs of staff, were all somewhat reluctant, gates and mullen in particular put out the word that they didnt think this was a particularly good idea early on. but it was many of the nato allies and what pushed everybody over the edge is when the arab league said, yes, theyd be in favor of enforcing a no-fly zone over libya in order to protect libyan cities from moammar gadhafis military. so the u.s. was almost dragged reluctantly into this. the only time that president obama really got hi...

About the food. it is mostly about the food because thats the question of -- you hear about milk thats contaminated and of course mothers are going to get concerned and thats the sort of -- thats going to go on for a long time. theyre going to have to set up some kind of strict monitoring system, this is just at a time when the japanese were thinking they could become major food exporters to other nations in asia. that looks like thats not going to happen because other countries are finding radi...

European military. but even with the support, it is not clear the rebels will be able to advance to tripoli. they remain without a clear leadership. most of the rebels dont have military training and some unites of gadhafis army here in the east have been holding out and so far, the rebels have not been able to take advantage of this incredible gift of western military support to drive and continue to advance to tripoli. willie? >> richard engel in libya for us this morning, thanks. for more p...

President obama made ending the wars in iraq and afghanistan a central pledge in his run for the white house. now two years into his presidency, the president is commander in chief of three conflicts overseas and hes finding it harder to stick to his domestic agenda, jobs and the economy. jonathan altar is national affairs columnist for "newsweek" and msnbc political analyst. john, good to see you. so he ratcheted up in afghanistan, doubled down there, now going into libya. are his supporters, p...

Prestigious group in front of indias elite. she was paid for that and she decided on her own to go to israel. but she certainly made some news there in india, not only saying that theres no rush for her to decide, but she also once again blamed the media for her mistreatment. she says she doesnt play the victim card, and then she went after president barack obama on libya. she was specifically asked how she would deal differently with libya and she said, well, we have a tradition in the united s...

Mediterranean, add a french general or british admiral to it and claim that were no longer in command. right now it is a u.s. army four-star general running the operation. so i think we could transition the command and control without much difficulty. the problem will come though if gadhafis next move, as hes done before, is get inside urban areas with his armor, protect himself from allied air attack. at that point i dont see how the brits and the french and four fighter jets out of qatar make ...

They were back in washington dealing with libya and japan right now because they do admit it would be a lot easier to be there than be on this trip at the same time, the repair work that would have gone into dealing with chile and brazil, seeing the president of the united states diss latin america. >> remember the indonesia trip got canceled not once but twice. what we see is really i would call it dual-track diplomacy. president on saturday was sticking to the schedule here in brazil though it...

Who -- such as al qaeda that will come back and also be a problem to the security of our country. thats a major issue for us. >> i have to ask you here, congressman, about what the standard is for american intervention because a lot of people watching this, whats happening in libya, are saying, wait a minute, 52 people were shot dead in the streets of yemen on friday. we have same thing happening in syria, in bahrain. if this is about a moral stand, if it is a humanitarian mission, why not there...

A ranking member of the house committee on intelligence, participating in fridays meeting with top congressional leaders on libya. congressman, good morning. you were in the room. what exactly is the objective here? what should the american people know about what were doing there and how long well be there? >> i think the most important thing is this is a united nations security council resolution with the support of the arab league. this makes this a lot different than, say, when president bush...

Yemens ambassadors to jordan and syria and the yemeni parliaments deputy speaker. an unexpected blast of winter weather in southern california this weekend. snow, ice, flooding and rock slides led to evacuations and the closure of some major highways there. back now to the ongoing military campaign in libya. were joined now by nbcs chief pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski. jim, good to see you this morning. >> good morning, willie. >> jim, what are you hearing out of the pentagon? weve...