initiative which it s become. i see david gergen, you re shaking your head, why? i love fouad ajami, i think his analysis are so cogent. when sarkozy or cameron commit themselves, that matters in europe, but not to the world. when the president of the united states commits to a course of action, that matters to the world. if he pledges he s going to get rid of gadhafi, and he does not succeed at that, it s going to matter a lot, as you know, and have a ripple effect in many parts of the world. ann marie, have we just sided in a civil war? is nato the air force for opposition forces? and to fouad s point, that would seem to put a lot of the emphasis president obama put on the security councilman date and the limits of it, it would seem to nullify what he said? well, i still don t think we
maintained control for the last week. a stark reminder that without coalition air strikes, this advance west would not be possible. in tripoli on saturday, a bizarre scene at a hotel filled with international journalists. this woman burst in screaming she had been beaten and gang raped by gadhafi s forces. look what they did to me, she cries, my honor was violated by them. libyan officials initially claimed she was a mentally ill prostitute her family maintains she s a lawyer. government minders snatched her away, throwing a bag over her head. she was dragged to a waiting car. she warned, if you don t see me tomorrow, then that s it.
the city of ashdabiya where you are tonight. they got close to serte, but you say their momentum has stopped. what happened? it most certainly seems to have, anderson. they got to the small town you mentioned earlier, it s about 60 miles to the east of serte. when they were entering, according to one opposition fighter, they began searching homes, they say they found a number of weapons that they believe gadhafi had handed out to residents in this neighborhood. they then say residents began shooting at them, and the opposition said they decided not to fire back because of concerns for civilian casualties. they said they were forced to retreat. as they were retreating, they came under a heavy barrage of
intervened as gadhafi was closing in on benghazi a little more than a week ago. at this particular moment, we were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale. we had a unique ability to stop that violence. an international mandate for action. a broad coalition prepared to join us. the support of arab countries, and a plea for help from the libyan people themselves. we also had the ability to stop gadhafi s forces in their tracks without putting american troops on the ground. to brush aside america s responsibility as a leader and more profoundly our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances, would have been a betrayal of who we are. a lot more on what the president said in a moment. we ll also look tonight in an incredibly disturbing incident that looked at a tripoli hotel full of journalists. a woman tried to tell reporters of her alleged gang rape at the hands of gadhafi troops. this woman was dragged away by gadhafi officials, we have upda
took bin jawad and continued their march west toward gadhafi s hometown of sirte, but on the way encounters heavy resistance. their advance was halted at umm al gandeel. opposition forces had to pull back to the town of bin jawad. in misrata, where the battle has raged for weeks, cnn was finally granted access and discovered a city destroyed. gadhafi s forces claim they control the town, our team was stopped a few miles from the center of the city, suggesting the battle for misrata continues, as does the battle for the future of libya. later on the program we ll have an update on that woman dragged off by security forces. we heard from her family, we ll talk to correspondents who were there. earlier tonight i spoke with a opposition spokesman in that town of misrata.