Pushing Gadhafi News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Fundamental question that pat brought up, katrina, and that is, can the president ever define success in libya that somehow leaves gadhafi in power? i mean, at this point is the u.s. forced -- is the obama administration forced to stick with this until they've driven gadhafi from power? >> i think their possibilities of mediation, of finding ways, i think -- find a way of exile for gadhafi, this brutal dictator. and i would define success, again, as a new role for america in a world in which it has been the ally of the most autocratic governments. i think president obama tonight will lay out a...

Special case, this isn't -- it's not a precedent. we're not setting a precedent here to intervene in syria or intervene in yemen or intervene in bahrain. it was mostly syria was the conference in the white house press briefing room today. and yet you are making the case that all of this is connected. they seem hesitant to do that publicly. do you think that's just pure domestic politics? not wanting to back themselves into a corner when it comes to military intervention? >> no. the issues are connected. but the intervention in libya is in some ways a special case. let me tell you why. i think ...

Of there. but independents in the middle disapproved of this. does this have to do with the bad economy, that it doesn't help people thinking, what are we doing in libya when we have problems here at home? >> i think what it is is we've had these two interventions, afghanistan and iraq, and they were enormously popular at the beginning. both bushes were up around 90%. and then it faded. what we have here, chuck, is the country didn't want to go into libya. this is obama's war now. and obama has to win it. he can't walk away from this with gadhafi still in power or he's risking another lockerbi...

We don't hear that -- this is truly exceptional. he's an exceptional man. the scale is different. you have to set a ceiling somewhere. yeah, you can't intervene in every place. but a ceiling has to be set. the second way in which this is exceptional, in the sense that -- this is unique in the sense that you have arab support almost universally. the opposition to gadhafi is unprecedented in the history of the arab world, not just among governments but among the publics who are seeking to overthrow these governments in the arab world. this is really unusual. and in that sense, it makes it easier...

Flying their missions over libya, dealing a devastating blow toga definitefy's military, stopping its in its track. the opposition has been able to capitalize on that, pushing gadhafi's forces further to the west to the city of a sh aa by-a. there are concerns for other areas like israta, where gadhafi's forces are embedded in these cities carrying out massacres against the population. because they are amongst civilians, the air strikes cannot be used against them because of the collateral damage, the civilian casualties would be too high. people are very concerned about what is going to happe...