at last. i think the president did a great job. i m not a fan of president obama, i didn t vote for him. i think he should have done this much earlier. but the second guessing he finally did it, and i think he answered the great questions about this intervention. and he laid out, if you will, if you want to call it the obama doctrine of intervention, fine. if you want something less ambitious, fine? he did it, and he told us the truth, this was always about benghazi, a rescue operation he was forced to do. i think it s the right thing. ann marie slaughter, what did you make? some of the big questions out there about the mission in libya, what s the goal of the u.s.? what s the exit strategy? how will the u.s. military be involved? are these all questions he sufficiently answered? i think did he. if he s getting criticized that heavily from left and right, he s striking a balance. he made clear that we went in to avoid what he described as violence on a horrific scale in benghazi,
whether he spelled out his goals where he s going to go from here, i think is much more open to question. my judgment, the past is clear. the future remains murkky. what about the exit strategy? some people describing this as his mission accomplished moment? did he explain to the american people how we re going to get out of this once this mission is accomplished? no, if anything, i think many americans are probably worried that we re going to get more deeply embroiled. let s say there s a stalemate. in that case gadhafi clings to power. i think the united states is going to bring much more diplomatic and economic force to bear. there s an important story today in the financial times that the country of gutter, a gulf country, has not only recognized the rebels as france has, but agreed to by its oil. that could provide a lot of money to the rebels. there could be a stalemate and the united states would be
about this intervention. and he laid out, if you will, if you want to call it the obama doctrine of intervention, fine. if you want something less ambitious, fine? he did it, and he told us the truth, this was always about benghazi, a rescue operation he was forced to do. i think it s the right thing. ann marie slaughter, what did you make? some of the big questions out there about the mission in libya, what s the goal of the u.s.? what s the exit strategy? how will the u.s. military be involved? are these all questions he sufficiently answered? i think did he. if he s getting criticized that heavily from left and right, he s striking a balance. he made clear that we went in to avoid what he described as violence on a horrific scale in benghazi, that again the mandate of the u.n. coalition that nato is now leading is to protect libyan civilians, i think that makes very clear what success looks like there, it means that libyan civilians are safe, safe
also with us, professor faoud ajami. and ari fleischer. fouad, what do you think? i think the president did a great job. i m not a fan of president obama, i didn t vote for him. i think he should have done this much earlier. but the second guessing he laid out, if you want to call it the obama doctrine of intervention, fine. if you want something less ambitious, fine? he did it, and he told us the truth, this was always about benghazi, a rescue operation he was forced to do. i think it s the right thing. ann marie slaughter, what did you make? some of the big questions out there about the mission in libya, what s the goal of the u.s.? what s the exit strategy? how will the u.s. military be involved? are these all questions he sufficiently answered? i think did he. if he s getting criticized that
why not the dictator in syria? why not the dictator in iran? that s the that s the larger issue. you would support that then, too? would i support and have supported a doctrine that is not situational ethics. you want the security force to get rid of bashar assad and ahmadinejad? you go in you have to go in to win and need a clear exit strategy. but they are not going into syria and iran. they are going into libya? what s the difference. you know this region better that be most of these people who are in government today. what is the difference between assad and gadhafi? what is it? syria, we could argue for our interests, we have a greater strategic interest in syria given its geography as jill just pointed out, and its interaction with al qaeda than we do in libya. the point being that if bashar assad or ahmadinejad were on the verge of doing what gadhafi was on the verge of doing in benghazi, slaughtering tens of thousands of people, would the u.s., would the obama