Between The Lines - Phyllis Bennis: Reaction to Obama Speech Justifying U.S. Intervention in Libya War (Week Ending April 8, 2011)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

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Obama Fails to Answer Key Questions on U.S.-Libya Intervention End Game

RealAudio MP3

Posted March 30, 2011

Interview with Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, conducted by Scott Harris

Nine days after ordering the Pentagon to launch attacks on Moammar Gadhafi's air defenses and ground troops, along with an international coalition, President Obama delivered a nationally televised speech designed to defend that decision. In his March 28th address at the National Defense University, Obama justified the U.S. intervention in Libya by maintaining that the rebel-held city of Benghazi was on the brink of a humanitarian disaster, with Gadhafi's forces closing in, and the likelihood of a bloodbath. He also told Americans that the multinational effort he had organized was needed in Libya to avoid a repetition of the nation's costly war in Iraq. The president pledged that NATO, of which the U.S. is the most important member, will take over leading enforcement of the U.N. mandated no-fly zone over Libya.

But while reaction varied -- with most Democrats offering support and most Republicans leveling criticism -- several important questions remained unanswered in the president's speech. What will the U.S. military do to support the president’s stated goal of removing Gadhafi from power? What's the exit strategy for the U.S. if the rebels are unable to defeat Gadhafi’s forces, and Libya’s people find themselves in a long, bloody civil war? Other questions focused on the unknown political character and goals of Libyan opposition groups, whose rebel fighters have lost ground to government troops in recent days.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. She takes a critical look at President Obama's speech and his decision to intervene in the Libyan conflict.

PHYLLIS BENNIS: Well, you know, Scott, I think that we already are involved in a third war in the Middle East and unfortunately, President Obama's speech didn't do much to assuage that fear. It was a good speech. President Obama can be a great communicator. It was a powerful speech; it was an emotive speech. But, it didn't answer a lot of the key questions that people have been asking. The questions remain. The question of: Why didn't he consult with Congress? There was no real discussion about the U.S. plan is. He said, basically, "Our position is, we want regime change." But, our military isn't involved in that because the military is restricted by what the U.N. resolution says, and that's just about protecting civilians. So, of course, we're not going to move toward regime change with our military.

The problem, of course, is that I don't think that anybody really believes that. When you have the commander-in-chief telling the military "we want regime change, but we want you to be very careful about what you do." That's a real mixed message that I think really doesn't work very well.

And then you have the problem of what the endgame looks like. We didn't hear anything about the Libyan opposition. There's lots of questions about that. The problem that we have here is that this isn't just a revolutionary process that we're watching and cheering. This is one where our government, our tax money, our military is actively fighting with them. These are now our guys. So the question of who they are becomes much more important. And of course, President Obama couldn't answer that, because frankly, I don't think that they have a clue either.

I would love to believe that President Obama is really trying to create new foreign policy, a foreign policy based on internationalism, based on taking care of people in other nations. But as long as our actual policy enables those violations everywhere else, and the one place we decide to do something about it -- it's a military assault, then I can't accept it. Then I'd find it just too hard to believe.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Phyllis, in a recent article, you talked about the prospect and your concern about a long war in Libya especially given the fact that the United States -- President Obama specifically calling for the ouster of Gadhafi -- the United States and its allies seem to be running aircover for the rebel movement. Maybe you could expand on your concern about how this could devolve into a very long adventure.

PHYLLIS BENNIS: Yeah, I think part of the problem is that without clarity, that the role of the United States is or is not to be a partisan, a partner, a military backer of the opposition forces, which is the role that our troops are playing now. There's no question about that. But it's not acknowledged quite that way. U.S. planes, French planes, have among other things, attacked retreating regime tanks and troops; attacked planes on the ground; attacked an airfield hundreds or maybe even thousands of kilometers away from any civilians; attacked military barracks. So they've gone far beyond this notion of simply immediate protection of the civilians in Benghazi, for instance.

The problem is that absent the complete overthrow of Gadhafi's regime, which would probably mean that Gadhafi would be killed somehow along the way. I don't quite see how else that would happen.

The possibility is far more likely, I think, that there will be a division of the country between a Gadhafi-controlled Western sector and essentially a Western protectorate in the east -- a NATO-U.S. protectorate of some sort in the eastern part of Libya where conveniently enough, that oil happens to be located -- the temporary interim government already signed their first contract (March 27) with some foreign oil company.

But the possibility of a long-term stalemate with the country divided, occasional flare-ups of violence, but the involvement remaining of U.S., NATO, other forces -- it could go on for a very long time. This was actually anticipated in the U.N. resolution. There's a reference to a request to the secretary general of the U.N. It asks him to report to the Security Council about the military developments in Libya within seven days and every month thereafter.

So it was implying that they believe that this is something that was going to go on for months, at least. President Obama tried in his speech tonight to sort of say, "well, we're pulling back; we're not the main ones." By implication sort of saying, and therefore we don't have to worry about it going on too long. But it doesn't really work that way. The U.S. is still the main component of NATO so having NATO command and control doesn't mean the U.S. isn't there. We're still the main military force. It's primarily U.S. planes. The U.S. has flown something like 199 military sorties in the last few days. The Brits had flown 2. So that's a divide of who's doing what at this point.

Phyllis Bennis is author of the book, "Ending the U.S. War in Afghanistan: A Primer." Visit the Institute for Policy Studies website at www.ips-dc.org