libya. so as far as developments, we ll wait to see what decisions are made at that meeting that the prime minister is about to chair. and as things stand right now there are a handful of countries that are moving assets into that region but so far as we understand it the united states has promised to limit its involvement to support roles especially for the french and united kingdom. correct? yeah. that s right. senior british government sources earlier this week were telling me that they didn t think that anything would happen and obviously it has developed quickly with the u.n. resolution. one of the things that one official was saying today is one of the crucial changes is the u.s. decided to back this move. many other countries involved, canada saying fighter jets are now in the region though they may take some time to be prepared to be involved. the italians offering seven bases.
and basically the nato command and control structure will be what runs the war. it seems very generous of berlusconi to offer up nato s base there. let s go to the map of libya that shows where the rebels currently remain in power. they lost a lot of ground in the last week and the united nations took some quick action once it decided to take up the issue but it s been weeks of dawdling as gadhafi s forces regained an upper hand, pushed them back. so here is where they are in red where rebels still hold power. benghazi is really the most significant city there. what happens now? what do they need in order to start fighting back against the government forces? well, they need a lot of time, a lot of weapons, a lot of ammunition. they need training. they need a lot of people. are they going to get any of that from international forces? i honestly don t think so. i think no matter what we do, what the allies do to stop the assault by gadhafi, i think that the rebels need a lot more
breaking news now. the french have confirmed that their fighter jets have destroyed a number of military vehicles in libya. they say armored vehicles and tanks. the report from al jazeera is that four tanks were destroyed. this is video of those french pilots preparing earlier today for the military strike. this came, an international agreement after gadhafi s forces broke the cease-fire, fired on the rebel stronghold of benghazi earlier today, and we know that there has been significant military action now with the french taking the lead. let s bring in nbc news military analyst general mccaffery and msnbc military analyst retired army colonel jack jacobs who are both joining me. general, let me begin with you. the united states has a number of ships now in the mediterranean, five if my count
government. in bahrain a similar story. saudi arabia the king there is trying to make overtures to keep the violence from happening but these are all allies of the united states and the war on terror important to america s missions and yet they re going through changes. yeah. what the united states has done is it s set the model in libya for any other actions. and that model demands, requires, security council action. you will not get security council action to go into yemen or into bahrain or into any other country. largely because the arab league certainly will not support it. now gadhafi does not have many friends in the arab league and so he was very vulnerable on this account. the others are not. ambassador walker, good to talk to you. thank you. thank you for lending your expertise. coming up we go live to london for more on britain s role in this u.n.-led force over libya.
president, who is obviously on a prescheduled trip to latin america. but, still, the fact that the secretary went out of her way to use the phrase we are supporting these countries in their military efforts and indeed the first elements of this have not been u.s. military aircraft although it s quite likely as you outlined that there are going to be a considerable number of u.s. military assets aircraft or not brought to bear before all is said and done in this. but we did not engage in any unilateral action in any way, which fits into the narrative whether you buy it or not that the administration has put forth all along and that is they cannot be seen as pulling the strings, even the western powers at large. right. when this is essentially an african, an arab conflict and a largely muslim nation. but i guess the agreement on the part of international partners to go into libya at this point is less surprising given moammar gadhafi s status