WASHINGTON (AP) — The four-day air assault in Libya will soon achieve the objectives of establishing a no-fly zone and averting a massacre of civilians by Moammar Gadhafi's troops, President Barack Obama said Tuesday, adding that despite squabbling among allies, the United States will hand off control of the operation to other countries within days.
"When this transition takes place, it is not
going to be our planes that are maintaining the no-fly zone," the
president said at a news conference in El Salvador as he neared the end of a
Latin American trip overshadowed by events in Libya. "It is not going to
be our ships that are necessarily enforcing the arms embargo. That's precisely
what the other nations are going to do."
Obama said he has "absolutely no doubt"
that a non-U.S. command entity can run the operation, although perhaps the most
obvious candidate — the NATO military alliance — has yet to sort out a
political agreement to do so. The president said NATO was meeting to "work
out some of the mechanisms."
Despite the cost — not only in effort, resources
and potential casualties, but also in taxpayer dollars — Obama said he believes
the American public is supportive of such a mission.
"This is something that we can build into our
budget. And we're confident that not only can the goals be achieved, but at the
end of the day the American people are going to feel satisfied that lives were
saved and people were helped," he said.
Obama spoke as one senior American military
official said the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar was expected to start flying air
patrols over Libya by this weekend, becoming the first member of the Arab
League to participate directly in the military mission. Obama and NATO had
insisted from the start on Arab support.
The president also suggested the administration
would not need to request funding from Congress for the air operations but
would pay for them out of money already approved.
Administration officials briefed lawmakers during
the day about costs and other details to date.
Domestic criticism of the operation has been muted
so far, with the president out of the country, but is likely to increase once
he flies home on Wednesday — a few hours earlier than had been scheduled.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton,
meanwhile, said the administration is getting reports — of questionable
credibility — that some in Gadhafi's inner circle may be looking for a way out
of the crisis. She said some of them, allegedly acting on the Libyan leader's
behalf, have reached out to people in Europe and elsewhere to ask, in effect,
"How do we get out of this?"
"Some of it is theater," Clinton said in
an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer. "Some of it is, you know, kind of,
shall we say game playing." She added: "A lot of it is just the way
he behaves. It's somewhat unpredictable. But some of it we think is exploring.
You know, 'What are my options? Where could I go? What could I do?' And we
would encourage that."
The Pentagon said two dozen more Tomahawk cruise
missiles were launched from U.S. and British submarines late Monday and early
Tuesday against Libyan targets, raising the total to 161 aimed at disabling
Gadhafi's air defenses.
Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III said Libyan ground
troops will be more vulnerable as the coalition grows in size and capability,
but he declined to provide details of future targeting. He spoke to reporters
at the Pentagon from aboard his command ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
The president and Pentagon officials have stressed
since the military campaign began that America would quickly give other
countries the lead.
"I think fairly shortly we are going to be
able to say that we've achieved the objective of a no-fly zone. We will also be
able to say that we have averted immediate tragedy," Obama said.
He told reporters he had spoken earlier with
British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in
hopes of quickly resolving a dispute over the transition of the military
mission.
With congressional critics growing more vocal, the
president defended the wisdom of the operation so far.
"It is in America's national interests to
participate ... because no one has a bigger stake in making sure that there are
basic rules of the road that are observed, that there is some semblance of
order and justice, particularly in a volatile region that's going through great
changes," Obama said
With longtime autocratic governments under pressure
elsewhere in the Arab world, the president made clear his decision to dispatch
U.S. planes and ships did not automatically signal he would do so everywhere.
"That doesn't mean we can solve every problem
in the world," he said.
Several members of Congress, including a number
from Obama's own party, were increasingly questioning the wisdom of U.S.
involvement.
"We began a military action at the same time
that we don't have a clear diplomatic policy, or a clear foreign policy when it
comes to what's going on in Libya," said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., adding that
the Obama administration lacks a clear understanding of rebel forces trying to
oust Gadhafi, who has ruled for 42 years.
"Do we know what their intentions would be?
Would they be able to govern if they were to succeed? And the answer is we
don't really know," Webb said.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said he would offer
an amendment to the next budget resolution that would prohibit taxpayer dollars
from being used to fund U.S. military operations in Libya.
The Marine Corps, meanwhile, offered fresh details
of its role in the rescue of an Air Force F-15E pilot who ejected over eastern
Libya on Monday. The plane's weapons system officer, who also ejected and made
it safely back to U.S. control, was recovered in a separate operation not
involving the Marines.
Unconfirmed reports from Libya said a number of
civilians were wounded, apparently during the pilot rescue, but the
circumstances were murky.
A senior Marine Corps officer at the Pentagon,
speaking on condition of anonymity because the F-15E's crash was still under
investigation, said that during the course of the rescue two 500-pound bombs
were dropped by Marine AV-8B Harrier jets.
The officer said the bombs were requested by the
downed pilot, who reported concern that possibly hostile forces were
approaching. The officer said it was unclear what the two bombs hit.
The pilot was picked up by an MV-22 Osprey aircraft
that flew — along with a second Osprey, two CH-53E helicopters and two Harriers
— from aboard the USS Kearsarge.
Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn in El
Salvador and Pauline Jelinek and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to
this report.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
