it s an important speech, because the president has to give one to explain but in a month no one will remember the speech or the tactics, they won t remember the content of the u.n. resolution they will look and see have we kurk seeded or not. that will depend on one event. will gaddafi be in power or not. if he is, the mission is a failure. because it means that libya will be partitioned. the civil war will be ongoing. because gaddafi s forces are stronger than the opposition that are disorganized we will have to provide protection indefinitely as we did in iraq after the gulf war in 1991. what the president has to explain is the gulf between the u.s. objective, regime change and the u.n. objective, protection of the population. the problem is there is no way to square that rhetorically. in the end, we re going to have to a decision on the ground.
killed 270 including 34 new jerseyens. and who in 2009 swapped lucrative oil deal in exchange for the release of the convicted pan am bomber. there is no question that if given the chance gaddafi will continue to support terrorism and therefore continuing to threaten americans at home and abroad there is pressure to the administration with libya. there is but republicans flip-floped all over the pen here. one point they say get in. then they say he went in too late or shouldn t have gone in the way he went in. it sounds like bashing. but he is on target when he calls gaddafi a terrorist no question. he s extortionist and he used extortion to get money to pay off the debt. the civil suits filed after the pan a.m. attacks. this is a terrible person. he deserves to be gone. charles is right in the speech tonight, the st. has to somehow square u.s. policy. with what the conduct so far which has all been couched in terms of the u.n. resolution to protect people who have
several more injured arriveed? morning with six dead. doctors do the best they can in a facility shot up and ransacked they say by gaddafi troops. the staff will stick with the rebels as they go toward tripoli. as the opposition fighters move west, your medical team will follow. treat them as they go. any casualty from both sides. we are, you know, limited dealing humanity. so we cannot establish between this or that. we treat all the casualties. reporter: that humanity has been tested, this doctor from benghazi tells us, by the torture he says gaddafi s mercenaries are inflicting on rebel fighters. he leads us down to the basement into the morgue and his orderlies help bring out the body from the freezer. the bag is unzipped and we see gruesome evidence. a toe and finger smashed and nearly cut off. the hand burned, the skull shattered. they cut the fingers.
explaining why the u.s. will not likely intervene in syria the way it did in libya, secretary of state clinton cited the scale of the violence. there is not an air force being used there is not the same level of force. arp and the ostensibly more benign leader this damascus. there is a different leader in syria now. many member of both parties that have gone to syria in recent months said they believe he is a reformer. reporter: at least one prominent foreign policy voice in the u.s. senate disagrees. if he does what gaddafi has been doing, there is a precedent that has been set and it s the right one. reporter: senior aid said libya is unique and military decisions are not based on precedent. secretary clinton tried to engage syria and weaken ties with iran in march 2009 she sent assistant secretary of state to damascus, the first such visit in four years and she
that gaddafi must go. the president i hope would clarify that in his speech on monday night. bret: in less than an hour, president obama will address the nation from national defense university here in washington, d.c. nine days after the u.s. and allies engage first if in the military intervention in libya. also after a weekend, during which administration officials including defense secretary robert gates and secretary of state hillary clinton appeared on some of the sunday talk shows. do you think libya posed actual or imminent threat to the united states? no. it was not a vital or national interest to the united states but it was an interest. bret: what about all of this and what has to happen, needs to happen and will happen in the speech tonight? bring in the panel. chris stirewalt, fox news editor digital. juan williams, columnist with the hill and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. charles?