Energetically defensive American attacks in Libya, President Barack Obama stated Monday night that the United States intervene to stop a slaughter of civilians that would have discolored the world's sense of right and wrong and "been a disloyalty of who we are" as Americans. Yet he ruled out targeting Moammar Gadhafi, warning that annoying to oust him militarily would be an error as expensive as the war in Iraq.
Obama proclaimed that NATO would take command over the whole Libya operation on Wednesday, keeping his promise to get the U.S. out of the lead fast — but offering no guess on when the conflict might end and no details about its costs notwithstanding demands for those answers from lawmakers.
He decline to label the U.S.-led military crusade as a "war," but made an liberal case for why he believed it was in the national attention of the United States and allies to use force.
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