the capital of tripoli to the west here, where residents describe constant fear and intimidation. so much that at the rate of about 15,000 a day, refugees going across the border. not libyans yet. most of them are foreign workers. but they are leaving because of the climate. and this is the border with tunisia. they are leaving from libya. still at the rate, we are told of about 15,000 a day. at the white house president obama conceded he s worried a long steal mate could be bloody and says the administration is considering a list of humanitarian and military options. caution is the watch word for the administration s response. gadhafi needs to step down from power and leave. that is good for his country. it is good for his people. it s the right thing to do. but with the white house
as a result the other oil rich countries are looking at it carefully. i m not ready to say that president obama is being foolish to be somewhat measured and cautious. he has come out very clearly against gadhafi. he s come out clearly saying the violence must stop. giving him a week or two to figure out the most effective methods is better than going in guns blazing. once you start a military intervention, as we have learned over the last decade, that becomes a very big undertaking and should not be undertaken lightly. excellent point to close on, fareed zakaria, as always, thanks. in pleasure, john. and don t miss fareed s special program restoring the american dream: getting back to number one. that s sunday night at 8:00 p.m. newt gingrich confirms the world s worst kept secret, he s thinking of running for president. and mike huckabee says the young barack obama was shaped by his
full list of options. some for humanitarian purposes. some military contingencies. but he says he needs more consultations with allies. he wants to see how the situation develops. but he did acknowledge this. you are right that there is a danger of a stalemate that over time could be bloody. that s something we re obviously considering. fareed, you hear from the president today, and yes, he said on camera for the first time gadhafi must go. but otherwise it was almost treading water. we re thinking about this. we re talking to colleagues. i m not saying it s easy. but at what point does all of this caution translate perhaps to indecision and as some are starting to say, american weakness? i don t think so. i think the president is quite right to be somewhat cautious about a military option. it s a pretty complicated
option. not just militarily. i understand that getting rid of libyan air defenses is not a huge undertaking. but politically you are engaging in a military intervepgs in a muslim country. this will be number three in ten years. it hands gadhafi certainly a very powerful weapon chrks is to say that he s now resisting american aggression. so figuring out what is the right thing to do makes sense. the president needs to be clear, though. he said gadhafi must go and the violence must stop. now he s going to have to make good on those. he ll look foolish if he can t translate those demands or declarations in some ways. he has drawn a line in the sand. the united states is going to do something to change the balance of power between gadhafi and the rebels. but what precisely is not clear. what precisely is what gets
crimes. there are armed supplies that can be opened up. there are humanitarian interventions that can be eng e engaged in. in the long run, gadhafi is doomed. he account no survive completely isolated when the arab league has turned against him. in the short run he has huge military advantages over the rebels. so what we re trying to do here, what the white house is trying to do is figure out how to blunt the short-term military advantages while maintaining the pressure that makes in the long run the outcome preordained. gadhafi will not be running libya five years from now or two years for now. the question is, two weeks for now and a month from now, what do you do to make sure he doesn t slaughter civilian miss the process? when we were having the conversation about mubarak, we had the sense the egyptian military, which has a long standing relationship with the united states and other governments that the egyptian military would play a key role