official communication or formal communication with those in this so-called opposition that are opposing the regime s ground forces. general tom bowman with nkr. you talk about the no-fly zone moving towards mizrahi. the reports today that libyan soldiers are shooting civilians there, and i m wondering along those lines, do you fear u.n. resolutions specifies benghazi, but my best, move on to other cities as well and, also, is a ground guy like yourself, talk about the difficulty protecting civilians by air when the libyan troops are in among the populations? the first step towards countering the regime from attacking civilians, whether
what s the end game in libya? how far will the u.s. go stop ga doff ji joining me from little rock, arkansas, retired general wesley clark. general, thank for being with us here. the u.s. now, you know, engaged in war number three. you have iraq, afghanistan and now libya. we heard from general ham just moments ago in that press conference, and he said there was no communication, no american boots on the ground, no official communication with the rebels in libya. do we know who we re working with here? when you think about a post-gadhafi regime, do we even know who these folk, who might be open to discussions to a new government, to a new future in libya? we know some of them, suzanne, because secretary of state clinton met with them. there is some libyan opposition headquarters setting up in washington, for example. these people are available but
thank you for that. from the new york times. you said there is no official communication or formal communication with the rebels. can you say there are no americans on the ground, period, with the rebels or on the ground, period, americans of any kind? it s been very clear to me and i think anyone who has heard the president or the secretary of defense speak to this, you know, no american boots on the ground. there are no american boots on the ground from this coalition. you know, i think there are, frankly i think there are some american citizens who were in libya who chose not to leave, but no one who s associated no one a part of this coalition is on the ground. i don t know how to be more clear than that. no military boots on the ground. general ham, with the l.a.
important distimp distinction, to protect civilians not help the rebels. so the u.s. mission, the coalition mission is not to help them. there are many who quietly hoped that the overall mission would be not only to stop gadhafi but get limb out of there. so, david, one of the things the general also mentioned as well, there are no direct or official communications with those on the ground with the rebels. how do we know who we re eving dealing with? i think that s a hard question. he made it clear from the air, especially with close quarters you can t distinguish between who s a rebel and who s a loyalist. well, and a the new york times journalist pushed him. he said therish no boots on the ground. no military. he didn t address u.s. intelligence being there, nor
we re not exactly sure who they represent or what their real agenda is. and it may be a mixed agenda. there may be reputable people and others we would have concerns about. we don t know that, but what we do know is that the military action is accomplished its major purpose. it stopped gadhafi. i m concerned about what s happening in misrata. we heard security forces are going house to house, terrorizing people and holding them out. of course, he s going to consolidate his gains. i believe a u.n. security council special representative to the secretary-general has been appointed. i m told this was the former foreign minister of jordan. we should be hearing from him. it s really a u.n. problem at this point, and they should be addressing this with mr. gadhafi. i would like to see the u.n. in on the ground, talking to gadhafi, stopping this internal security effort that s going on