with the forces which may emerge from the choice of the libyan people. it s they, not us, who will decide this. we re going to keep remembering this. we mustn t let the best be the enemy of the good in deciding our own action. just because we can t know everything or do everything, doesn t mean we shouldn t do what we can. if the need to protect civilians in libya is the driving force behind the u.n. resolution, why not in syria? why not in yemen? well, i think as secretary clinton said yesterday, you ve got to apply your yujudgment to these cases and it s a question of scale. so far in those other places we haven t see the wanton use of force that we ve seen in libya. the use of force boy a state against its own citizens with almost no limits is what we were seeing in libya. and what we ve done has prevented the massacre of a city, of benghazi, which was under threat ten days ago.
edition of andrea mitchell reports. tomorrow, on the program, a big day. james and sarah brady in a rare tv interview, almost 30 years to the day, shot with a bullet met for president reagan. we ll be talking about gun control. contessa brewer in for tamron hall on news nation. andrea, in our next hour, president obama is getting ready to convince the nation bombing libya was necessary. while rebels make their way toward gadhafi s hometown. we ll talk about what the president needs to say to the washington post jonathan capeha capehart. more horrific photos of soldiers posing with afghans. s . back in 1966. my employees are like family, and i want people that work for me to feel that they re sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card
gadhafi in power would be really a defeat for the united states, for nato, for the u.n. he cannot be allowed to stay in power given his behavior, given the president s own statement that he has really forfeited his legitimacy to serve as the leader of libya. so we re in this, even though we have the patina at this point, it s only a humanitarian mission. our mission it s not mission accomplished just yet, but the president will say that we have succeeded in our ability to curb his gha s mlitaryors fromangvan rl inicngre dagup t op o libya. so is it too cute by half for the commander in chief to come before the nation and say we re not at war, we haven t taken sides, it s a limited humanitarian mission and the nato is in the lead to enforce this u.n. mandate when everyone knows that we are nato? i think part of it is just the sheer necessity of remaining ambiguous on this. for example, if the united states were to declare that our
the al qaeda affiliate there, the al qaeda feeder organization, is most strong. we believe that the largest number of foreign fighters to enter iraq during the war there came from eastern libya. came from libya. yes. rather than from iran or some of these other places? exactly right. well, what do we do to prevent the opportunism that will permit an al qaeda foothold in libya? what support can be put together for the political structures that are not very well deeply rooted in libya in this tribal society? as tough as the last ten days have been, this is now where it gets really hard. and i would just be a little reluctant to assume success yet, or at least immediate success. because tripoli is a major yes. military challenge. i know your other commentators today of said gadhafi goes. i believe he goes as well.
right. what kind of government would exist at all in libya if gadhafi were forced out for one way or another. what do we know about the opposition? because as i understand it, there have been intelligence reports over recent years that al qaeda has strong fos, iseb rnar ntll now. right. if i were still in government, i would expect that was a question that was asked every time i was in the situation room, who are these folks. we need to build up a fairly granular understanding of exactly what they are. there s a bit of sponteous combustion about this. a lot of different forces blended together into a common stream, united only by their opposition to gadhafi. now, i will not claim this is al qaeda in the background trying to manipulate this for their own gain. but it is true that the eastern part of libya, which is the homeland for the opposition, is the part of libya in which the libyan islamic fighting group,