battle, right here in tripoli. they ve taken their first key town of ajdabiya and have gotten help from allied airstrikes. those strikes targeted qaddafi tanks, rocket launchers, as well as artillery, that really paved the way for them to take ajdabiya and more important is resupply trucks from the government going down the long desert road they have been hit hard so qaddafi forces without fuel an ammunition have had little choice but to retreat in the face of running out of supplies and retreated past brega, at times the qaddafi forces are getting out of the military vehicles and into civilian cars to flee, without being targeted. the next big test is likely to be qaddafi s home town of sirte, and if they take that, all bets are off and there could be a battle in the capital and the qaddafi government says it s an outrage what is happening and the allied forces are taking
gates said on one of those other sunday shows, he says he doesn t think libya is a vital interest for the united states but we have a vital interest in that part of the world. would you be sending american servicemen and will into harm s way, for something that was not a vital interest to the country? no, but obviously, we could quibble over what the definition of vital interests are. we said after rwanda, never again and the holocaust, never again and the fact is qaddafi s forces were on the outskirts of benghazi and he said himself he d go house-to-house and kill and murder people, and, thank god at the 11th hour, with the no-fly zone, quote, no-fly zone we prevented that from happening and now the momentum shifted dramatically and the initiative is in the hands of those who are second aspect of it, of course is that if you had allowed
think what is not confusing is what the coalition forces have been doing, over the area, of libya. and, that is, we re taking very aggressive action, not only to keep their planes on the ground, but to stop their forces from attacking. we have taken a side in libya, and it is the right side and we ought to be open about it. we are taking the side of the freedom fighters, in libya, against one of the most totalitarian regimes that ever existed in the world which is qaddafi s. and in the end of this, he has to go. one way or the other. chris: well, do you think because supposedly we haven t taken a side. i understand it is protecting civilians but, you know, now the apparently the rebels have taken brega, headed on the way to sirte and tripoli and how much should the u.s. do to advance the rebel move on to the capital of tripoli. three weeks ago we imposed the no-fly zone, the thing would
willing to do. i hope the president will be dramatically clearer than he has to now, i hope he ll say he s consulting the congress not just the arab league and the u.n. and hope he ll say second it is clear the qaddafi dictatorship has to leave and we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure that he leaves whatever it takes. i think it means dishes should we strike at him? yes. with once you engage air power, use it in its most effective way. you don t need to send in ground forces, we have been supporting an sustaining egyptian moroccan, jordanian and iraqi forces for years and should be able to find allies who are prepared to go on the ground. you don t need much ground force if you have air power but you need accuracy in the bombing campaign and to be able to drive his forces to defeat. chris: full out, to defeat, topple qaddafi and his regime. otherwise the campaign makes no sense. qaddafi s semi in charge, he s a
qaddafi to do that, sends a signal to the other leaders in the middle east, dictators and not it is okay to massacre your own people to stay in power and finally, this is a moment of historic proportion and this will give us a golden opportunity to help with democracy and freedom throughout the arab world. chris: senator lieberman, what should president obama tell the american people tomorrow night? well i think president obama should begin in the exact terms john mccain just described. explain why we are there. why it is vitally important that the u.s. is part of an international coalition in libya and there are two reasons. one is that we are there to avert a humanitarian disaster. i mean, the fact is that if the coalition forces had not gone into libya, now about a week ago, we would be on this sunday show, bemoaning, really, the