It's now been more than three months since the Obama administration committed to the NATO led effort to oust Libyan President Muammar el-Qaddafi, and despite what high ranking officials say, it hasn't gone exactly as planned.
Then again, hasn't been recent history that it rarely does?
Although the idea to join France and Germany in trying to take out the Mad Dog of the Middle East was motivated mainly by pure, humanitarian reasons, it has become less palatable as the weeks and months have endured in a "stalemate" mode, with the public turning against the conflict, with Qaddafi successfully evading capture and/or death. And the fact that arguably just as bad if not more horrific human rights crimes are being committed in Syria.
Three months, or 90 days into this conflict, is significant, since, according to the War Powers Act, the President must go to Congress to get approval legally within that time frame (actually the law also talks about 60 days). But he hasn't, stating that what our military is doing there can't be defined as "hostile," in effect blowing off legal opinions from top officials at the Justice Department and the Pentagon, according to a New York Times story published Saturday.
On Sunday, outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates was asked by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace how would he describe what the U.S. military is doing in Libya?
WALLACE: Secretary Gates, is the U.S. involved in the hostilities in Libya?
GATES: The way I like to put it is from our standpoint at the Pentagon, we're involved in a limited kinetic operation. If I'm in Qaddafi's palace, I suspect I think I'm at war.
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.
