that s the goal. we don t want to start 0 drodro bombs on syria if it doesn t accomplish a clear goal. the second thing people haven t talked as much about is, even if you have broad international community support, you still may have a very difficult military mission to accomplish. i think in libya we had a clear situation. gadhafi s forces were rolling into the major cities. we had the military might to stop that. there was a clearly achievable military objective. we ve seen in the past in lebanon and somalia situations where there was broad international support but there was no easy way for the military to achieve an objective. so all of those factors are in play. one situation is never exactly the same as the other. just because we went into libya doesn t mean we d have to go into syria. the president and all others will have to weigh the tafactor to see if it makes sense. congressman, wu were talking about the arab league support. obviously part of that is winning the hearts an
i want to play sound here from senator lieberman. if assad does what gadhafi was doing, which is to threaten to go house to house and kill anybody not on his side, there s a precedent now that the world community has set in libya and it s the right one. we re not going to stand by and allow this assad to slaughter his people like his father did years ago. so congressman this might concern some. would you see this as a setup for more u.s. involvement in the arab world? i think there s two additional factors here to keep in mind. number one, i think s been well stated, do we have broad international support? that s not just a matter of feeling better because we have broader international support. the ability of the mission succeed depends on how broad your support base is. the broader the international community, whether it s u.n., nato, the arab league, the prodder support from the international community, the more able you are to succeed in the mission and ultimately
the way, specifically a lot of outcry from tea party-backed conservative activists. they re planning a rally on capitol hill this thursday released a statement saying meshes of congress are passing continuiing resolutions. they are quite a force leaders will have to deal with in order to coming to compromise. they are shall we satisfy wary compromising with the democrats or white house. they ll want to push the number above $30 billion. it s unclear whether that will be agreed to. thank you, luke. while the budget is in every member s mind right now, the conflict in libya will hold the spotlight this evening. president obama is getting ready to tell the nation exactly why we are in this conflict and hopefully give concrete answers on our strategy to combat colonel gadhafi s forces in the weeks ahead. congressman adam smith is the ranking member of the house
the united states has joined the international community, that we have responsibilities. but that we have strong international support, that we have an endgame here, that this is not going to be an open-ended commitment of american soldiers, that we have a clear objective and that we believe we can accomplish that objective, that the early signs have been favorable. i expect that you ll see the president point out that here s a clear example of the international community responding and the united states being part of that international effort in order to stop the killing of innocent civilians in libya. senator cardin, i ve got the press release on your web site that you had released ten days mm from the united states and what it s doing with the no-fly zone. has that changed, evolved at all, after what you ve seen happen? no. what i said is it needed to be international and other countries need to step forward. the entire burden cannot be on the u.s., soldiers and
ghraib. absolutely. jim, appreciate it. democrats and republicans on capitol hill will keep a close eye on the president s speech tonight. we ll be watching that. there are still plenty of questions in congress about what the plan for our military operation for libya is going forward. senator benned cardin, a member of the foreign releases committee, hedowns us. thanks for joining us today. i want to go back to what richard was saying at the white house, stalking about the endgame. what s your thought on that? what s the endgame in libya? i think the endgame is a safe environment for the civilian population in libya. we want to stop gadhafi s ability to inflict the types of damage to his own civilian population. that s the clear objective. now, robert gates was sayin libya is not in our vital interest. if that s the case, what s the criteria for entering libya but