speech tonight and in large part because of the barrage of criticism that he s been getting from both parties in congress and specifically the idea that main think that he has not defined the mission and offered couldn contradictory and pretty stunning how similar they told me that the questions that they have for the president tonight, what they want him to answer, things like what is the mission here? you mentioned that he said it s a limited role. what is that limited role? what is the u.s. objective? and what is the end game? what is the exit strategy in that is something that members in both parties really emphasized, even members who have supported the mission so far. they said, look, it cannot be open ended. we need to know how long it s going to be there. this is a congress that is definitely wary of campaigns in iraq and afghanistan. this is much smaller scale but it s still meaning manpower and
it s blatant hypocrisy isn t enough to speak out, how about this? jihadis that fought us the u.s. in iraq and afghanistan now enjoy american support in libya. excuse me? that means the people who we were actually shooting at on the battlefield, we now giving arms to in libya. this libya rebel commander says his fighters have al-qaeda links. we ll have more on the story at the bottom of the hour. let s see if we have this right. we have a nobel peace prize winning president, encouraging unrest in the mast. saying rise up, isn t this great? look, now people are rising up. people are getting killed everywhere. then he gave the commander to launch america s third military conflict with a muslim nation that poses no immediate threat. never made the case to the american people. and no exit strategy. no one is even asking or answering the question what
thing. president obama is about to come out to do that given all the mixed messages that can t be easy. the ambassador has made very good points here. he says look, each of these issues are going to have to be seen as distinctive from each other, syria, bahrain, libya, very different cases. shepard: very different cases indeed. president obama just moments from now is expected to make the administration s case for why the united states should be involved in libyans civil war. but with the u.s. already tied up into very long and very bloody wars, will our president also lay out exit strategy? and if so, what will it be? this is a live look at the national university in washington. often speak from the white house and not tonight, there is significance there. as soon as he takes from the podium we will bring it to you live. the libyan rental tripoli loyal to muammar qaddafi. apparently reinvigorating those rebels. here is our senior correspondent rick leventhal front lines in
welcome back to hardball. the president is set to speak to the country tonight about the mission in libya in a little more than two hours. his decision to intervene there has created a whole new set of political risks as he starts to gear up for 2012. would failure in libya cost him more politically than victory would help him? katrina vandenhovel and pat buchanan join us. what do you need to hear from the president tonight about libya that you have not heard from him over the last two weeks? plausible exit strategy. i think going to the security council, to the united nations and getting a mandate to protect civilians was a worthy step. but we are now in many ways engaged in a civil war. if this is going to be a protracted long civil war intervention, i think it is going to be very costly to this country, to the president and to america s role in the region. so i think the president needs
welcome back. the president is set to speak to the nation about libya at the bottom of the hour. his decision to intervene there has created a whole new set of political risks. will failure in libya cost him more politically than victory would help him? i spoke to katrina vanden heuvel and pat buchanan. katrina, what do you need to hear from the fot night about libya that you have not heard from him over the last two weeks? a plausible exit strategy. i think going to the security council to the united nations and getting a mandate to protect civilians was a worthy step. but we are now in many ways engaged in a civil war. if this is going to be a fro