there s nato coalition, then nation building. i mean, this is sounding like to a lot of american people obviously, judging from the polls a little bit like iraq and afghanist afghanistan. the american people skeptical saying wait a minute, this sounds like what we ve seen before, even if you re not speaking from the oval office. andrea, the white house will say yay, we know about iraq and afghanistan, but we want you to say this sounds like bosnia, kosovo and the interventions done in the late 1990s. they believe that is a successful model. fact check them on this. sthe fact is it took a long time and there were massacres that preceded president clinton finally took him years to get to that point. years and years. they do not want this be. ifhey were tdo thi prime time at 8:00, they wouldbe
the country why we re fighting in libya, what s the end game, how do we get out? the role the u.s. will play from here on out and how important is it that gadhafi goes. and how did we wind up fighting in a country that even the country s own defense secretary on sunday said is not a vital u.s. interest. tonight, we ll look at what the president needs to say and the big stakes for him politically in lya if the effort for him goes bad. then we ll bring the president s speech live from the national war college here inform washington, d.c. let s begin with andrea mitch l mitchell. and of course, the huffington post s howard fineman who is an msnbc political analyst. what must the president say?
absolutely. but there s no easy choices here as andrea knows better than i. if gadhafi goes, it s almost a more complicated choice than if he stays. the american people will not be involved in a ground war or a civil war among people that we don t really know and with sides we can t really be that sure of. it s a tough situation having gotten involved, getting out is not going to be easy, but that s the case he has to make tonight. howard, you re providing a great segue. andrea had this interview with the former director of the cia on this issue of what happens after gadhafi in libya. let s take a listen. let s assume that he leaves. and i think that s the only way we get to phase two is if he leaves. now t iict rt es the destruction of all elements of civil society and try to construct a meaningful government out of that?