"Obama embraces U.N. limits in Libya"

[Clio the Leo]

Obama embraces U.N. limits in Libya
By PHILIP EWING | 3/21/11 7:43 PM EDT

President Barack Obama is testing a novel strategy in backing the international intervention in Libya, one informed by bitter experience in the Middle East and by traditional confidence that American military power can be judiciously wielded as a force for good.

Even as Obama wants to protect Libyan rebels from forces loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi, the president also wants to avoid putting the United States into another situation – the third in a decade – in which America would be responsible for rebuilding a Muslim nation it has attacked and decapitated.

So even though Obama reiterated his call Monday that Qadhafi “needs to go,” he said America is not authorized to target him under the conditions of the international agreement under which it’s operating.

This seeming disconnect has made for some awkward moments for the White House, which has at times struggled to explain the stutter-step nature of the campaign. And it’s fed into a growing GOP line of attack that Obama was slow to act and reluctant to lead.

But to Obama and his generals, it all makes sense within the strict confines of the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorized them to act in the first place — restrictions they clearly hope prevent this from becoming the third U.S. shooting war in the Middle East of any lengthy duration.

It’s equally clear that Obama himself is eager to shift the leadership of the campaign to allies — saying in Santiago, Chile, Monday that seeking an international coalition to impose a military no-fly zone over Libyan airspace was an example of “something we should actively seek and embrace” to relieve the burden on the U.S. military and the nation’s taxpayers.

That doesn’t mean Obama doesn’t see it as something of a dilemma: In order to act quickly to save Libyans, the U.S. and the world had to do so under conditions that wouldn’t give them a long-term solution – the ouster of Qadhafi or assistance for his enemies.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51700.html