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100,000 strong, and now this additional commitment of u.s. troops, not troops but u.s. assets, in libya. how does the president, speaking to the nation monday night, maintain a sense of national purpose here at a time when we're so stretched? >> actually, your list was incomplete. we have a substantial military commitment and humanitarian assistance disaster relief in japan as well, largely using naval forces. the air forces that we are using for the most part and the air forces in particular we're using in libya are forces normally stationed in europe in any event. the reality is, though, beg...

>> the military's stretched pretty thin. look at this map to show what our commitments are around the globe. in iraq, of course, we have 47,000 troops, in afghanistan, 100,000 strong, and now this additional commitment of u.s. troops -- not troops but u.s. assets in libya. how does the president, speaking to the nation monday night, maintain a sense of national purpose here at a time when we're so stretched? >> actually your list was incomplete. we have a substantial military commitment in humanitarian assistance disaster relief in japan as well, largely using naval forces. the air forces that...

There is very little coherence between the military hardware, the military action taking place and these broad, political objectives. getting rid of gadhafi is not going to happen by what we're seeing through air power, suppression of air defrs and no-fly zone and protecting civilians is a pretty broad mission if you interpret it broadly. i think in the end what we've seen is a military commitment on the part of the various governments, european, perhaps arab as you say, the united states to really deter and deny gadhafi the ability to conduct a mass slaughter but beyond that i think the coali...

The ear of secretary clinton 45 minutes last night. what were they asking for from the united states? they want military help, air cover, they want the united states and the allies to come in and bomb gadhafi's airstrips, three in particular, and they're not getting an affirmative answer here. hillary clinton and the united states government not willing to make a military commitment, first of all, they want to see what the arab league will do, whether the arab league will put up military forces and join, lead the way, in fact, if there is going to be a no-fly zone, which is a military engageme...

Network. there's this idea, don't just sit there, do something. it we see it every day in our living rooms. it blacks our problem. the thing the white house needs to do something, in a year when we're still there, are we going to feel like it's still our problem? then a year, it's, why did we go there? >> this looks like it's somalia waiting to happen again. willie geist, you read breaking news last hour about the secretary of defense. in afghanistan and i believe more distressing news. >> secretary gates landed in afghanistan a few hours ago and he said publicly now, we have quotes now that t...