but, again, they re going to have to wait to assess that damage to see exactly how much was done to his capability. as for the no-fly zone that you re looking at now, they ve decided to only enforce it in the more populated northern areas along the coast where colonel gadhafi s forces are concentrated. one of the primary differences in, say, doing it this way versus trying to cover the whole country is flat-out cost. the cost of establishing a no-fly zone over this part of the country is estimated to be somewhat just under $100 million a week. to do it over the entire country of libya, that could go up to more than $300 million a week. wolf? not cheap by any means. at what point, chris, do they make a decision not only to go after and take out the air defense systems of libya, including the radar systems, but to actually go to the air bases, the air force bases in libya? they know where they are. they know where the aging mirage
someone to look at their request? i m not sure if those countries want to send people with missiles flying around. they are countries somewhat friendly with gadhafi and the u.n. has a new special envoy and the secretary-general said he saw worrisome signs of attacks on journalists and civilians. the libyans may reach out to the u.n. to come up with the envoy returning in a bid to make diplomatic process. but once things go flying, sometimes the deadlines pass and gadhafi is still sending out bellicose messages, which is not going to help him at the u.n. richard roth, thank you very much. wolf? john, let me ask you a question. you re one of the few journalists that have interviewed gadhafi a few years ago. a lot of people think he s crazy. others say he s crazy like a fox. what was your impression? you used the word crazy both times. he was strange. this was back in 2005, and there was a window when libya wanted
has been quickly acted on by the u.s. and france. the deputy u.n. ambassador for libya told me by telephone he s relieved that these strikes have occurred. he asked for the no-fly zone a month ago when he dramatically politically defected from the libyan government though he represented colonel gadhafi for many years and was aware of what kind of political leader he was gadhafi was. he says he doesn t think there will be an emergency security council meeting. he says there will be no one left to represent libya at the meeting and you have to be a country on the security council to start the process to have a session. now, russia, jonathan, has come out with a political statement saying this resolution was too hastily adopted, and that it calls for a cease-fire and an end of violence. but russia had to know this could happen very quickly and it abstained and didn t veto when it could have. of course, remember when colonel gadhafi dramatically was on the stage at the world arena at the g
other nations saw with when we went into desert storm 20 years ago, people tried to do things to protect their air defense systems because they know that s the first target. my guess in this case is we were pretty effective. how vulnerable is the libyan air force? right now, their mirages, mig fighters on the ground in bases at hangars, if the u.s. wanted to destroy those planes on the ground, could it? probably could destroy most of they will on the ground. may be some hardened shelters. that was doctrine. some of it s been done in eastern europe and elsewhere. but most of those are exposed. they can be taken out. even if the u.s. were to destroy the air defense system, to destroy their jet fighters, the libyans still have stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles which the afghanis learned how to use in the 80s against the soviets rather
type of weapons very much in the past. but certainly the sounds that were coming up, sporadic gunfire. there s nothing apparently in the sky for them to shoot at. but those sounds certainly coming up. we ve seen more security out on the streets as we came through the city. government buildings being protected by armed civilians, traffic intersections being protected or controlled by armed police and very little traffic out on the streets as we came back towards our hotel here. perhaps an hour or so, an hour and a half after those first missiles hit libya. there go some more anti-aircraft gunfire going on. jon, wolf? how much do the people of libya know about what the coalition is doing? are they aware that they re under attack, that they ve been struck by more than 100 u.s. missiles or french fighter planes? reporter: i asked a couple of people that. i spoke at this rally to a man