tried to hammer home today as well. this is a very limited operation that is geared to save lives. and it was specifically targeted on a humanitarian basis. it is not geared to try to get rid of qaddafi. he has not been targeted. that is not what is happening here. so we know what lawmakers think after one day of apparent success in operation odyssey dawn. we re going to have to wait to see if they change their tune as the campaign continues, shannon? shannon: all right, peter. we know you are watching it thanks so much. admiral mike mullen says qaddafi is not the main focus of the mission. that leaves many wondering how we should deal with him. joining us is k.t. mcfarland. thanks so much for your time today. pleasure, shannon. shannon: all right. do we have a clearly defined goal here? at least we are hearing from one side this is not about taking out qaddafi. it s about making sure he doesn t harm civilians anymore. doesn t our long-term goal have to be about him in some
trying to do, and that is bring in the arabs to this. look, they are the catalyst for us getting involved in this to begin with. the arab league, they were concerned that america was walking away from it. and they made that appeal and we listened to it. and it certainly makes sense for them to get some skin in the game here. not just to make the request for the use of combat forces but put their own combat forces at risk in an arab-muslim country. that s got to happen. i m confident it will happen. shannon: general, very quickly, i wanted to ask you at least twice i have seen the president say publicly that u.s. ground forces are not going to get involved here. do you foresee a scenario where we may be forced to change that plan? well, it s probably unfortunate that we make that kind of statement mostly i think that statement is being played for interm audiences. you want to keep all your options on the table. all that said, i think what we will see, shannon, is we ll destroy qadda
they ought to tell us what the objectives are. be very clear and very transparent about it. if they re not, and we get into this mission creep as we call it where you gradually start changing the objectives and the french may have different objectives than the brits than the dutch than the italians. the italians are crucial in this. they have a good relationship with libya, so all these complications, i think, are just bringing up questions when you commit military force. it s easy to commit them. it s how you get into the end game. that s why i m questioning this. how are we going to get into an end game that doesn t overcommit us when we re already committed now? we ve got this crisis in japan we re trying to help with, etc. so we are stretched thin. reporter: general and michael, thank you very much. thanks, shannon. well, a leading figure of the libyan opposition movement has released a statement praising coalition forces for military action against qaddafi s regime.
minuscule amounts have also been found in the tap water here in tokyo. meanwhile, a massive release operation many nations including 50 thiewrks members of the 50,000 members of the u.s. forces here in japan have been ongoing trying to get relief supplies up to those 450,000 people still in those evacuation centers. they still lack fuel. they still lack food. and there is also limited water supplies. now, the japanese government has said the official death toll now stands at 8,000 with 12,000 still missing. but japanese police have reported in the last few hours that they believe 15,000 people may still be missing from one prefecture alone. back to you, shannon. shannon: thank you from the update from japan. we can agree that qaddafi is a complicated figure. up next, we will talk to someone who has interviewed him many
but there is no evidence, no indication that al qaeda is present in the form of the rebels who are trying to take the country, a man from whom he has ruled it with an iron fist for 42 years. there is just no evidence to support that but he wants to use that once again to get us to ge our military operation against him. shannon: i want to ask you the same question i asked one of our earlier guests k.t. mcfarland whether qaddafi and sons negotiate their way out of the country or do you think they will stay and i do there? no. i think he is like hosni america s mubarak of egypt. he said i m going to die in egypt. i believed him. i believe the same of qaddafi. i don t think this is a prelude to negotiations or that he is going to take up residency with hugo chavez in venezuela. i think he means what he says about fighting to the end and dying in his country if he has to. i m not sure about the sons, by