Obama: War May Go Until Qaddafi's End

Politico reports:

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador —President Barack Obama acknowledged Tuesday that the joint military operation under way in Libya to protect civilians could continue as long Col. Muammar Qadhafi remains in control in Tripoli, but the president also insisted that the U.S. contribution to keep the Libyan dictator’s regime in check would be limited.

“As long as Qadhafi remains in power — unless he changes his approach provides the Libyan people the opportunity to express themselves freely and there are significant reforms by the Libyan government, and he steps down — there’s still going to be a potential threat to the Libyan people,” Obama told reporters at a news conference here, his final stop on a five-day tour of Latin America. “We will continue to support the efforts to protect the Libyan people, but we will not be in the lead.”

The president said primary responsibility for air patrols over Libya would shift from the Pentagon to coalition partners, under a NATO command arrangement still being drafted. That, he said, would ensure that U.S. forces assume only a support role in the operation.

“When this transition takes place, it is not going to be our planes that are maintaining the no-fly zone,” Obama said. “It is not going to be our ships that are necessarily involved in enforcing the arms embargo. That’s precisely what the other coalition partners are going to do.”

Since the military campaign began on Saturday, White House officials have declared the Libyan leader’s ouster or departure is not the goal of the coalition backing the no-fly zone. However, at times on Tuesday that message was a bit muddled.

In an interview Tuesday with CNN’s Spanish-language channel, the president seemed to suggest that the joint campaign could result in Qadhafi’s departure.

“Qadhafi may try to hunker down and wait it out even in the face of a no fly zone even through his forces have been degraded, but keep in mind that we don’t just have military tools at our disposal in terms of accomplishing Qadhafi’s leaving,” Obama said. “We’ve put in place strong international sanctions. We’ve frozen his assets.”

Moments later, however, the president added that the military action takes place under a United Nations resolution—one which does not demand Qadhafi’s exit.

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