military action against Libya

Apparently, the Pentagon’s definition of a “support role” is a bit nuanced:

U.S. warplanes have bombed three ground targets in Libya since the Obama administration announced early this month that America was shifting to a support role in the NATO-led air campaign, the Pentagon acknowledged Wednesday.

Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said that U.S. fighter jets have attacked Libyan air defense sites as part of the no-fly zone imposed last month under a United Nations mandate to deter attacks against civilians by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi.

Administration officials have said previously that the U.S. had halted strike sorties on April 4, several days after turning over command of the air campaign to the NATO alliance, and that attacks on Libyan tanks and other ground units would be handled by aircraft from Britain, France and other allies.

I missed that! Obama's truth scale is somewhat broken.

"When this transition takes place, it is not going to be our planes that are maintaining the no-fly zone,"

the 11 U.S. aircraft have flown 97 of the 134 air defense mission sorties since April 4

Going forward, the lead in enforcing the no-fly zone and protecting civilians on the ground will transition to our allies and partners, and I am fully confident that our coalition will keep the pressure on Gadhafi's remaining forces.

In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role -- including intelligence, logistical support, search-and-rescue assistance, and capabilities to jam regime communications. Because of this transition to a broader, NATO-based coalition, the risk and cost of this operation -- to our military and to American taxpayers -- will be reduced significantly.



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/03/28/Transcript-of-Obama-speech-on-Libya/UPI-45771301359661/#ixzz1JSQs0H3I

Technically from the political pov, you are correct. However, whether they are police action or war, it still kills people the same way.

Cries of alarm ring out from Italy, Qatar, Great Britain, and France that the NATO allies aren't doing enough to help the Libyan rebels stave off Muammar Qaddafi's troops and mercenaries.
Two thoughts come to mind: First, that's three more countries than usual complaining about NATO's lackluster response to an allied call to arms. Usually, it's the United States yelling at Europeans for not pulling their share of some burden. Second, whichever side of the Atlantic is wagging the finger or mumbling excuses, the question that everyone's tried to brush off the table for the past 20 years remains stubbornly in place: What is NATO for, anyway? Why does it still exist?


Libya marks only the third time in NATO's 62-year history that the alliance members have joined forces in battle. The first two were in Kosovo and Afghanistan. None of the three wars has had anything to do with the reasons for the alliance's creation. Nor has any of the three wars been waged as a unified alliance. In this sense, the strategic incoherence of the Libyan operation, and the frustrations it's unleashed, are nothing new.

If the military stalemate continues on the ground, sooner or later the international community will be forced to swallow a bitter pill: Either they will have to push Gadhafi out the door through force, which can only be accomplished by deploying ground troops -- something which is not allowed under the current UN mandate. Or they will have to give up their demand that Gadhafi step down -- and sit down with the dictator at the negotiating table.

Exactly how will you achieve world peace ? Sing Gombaya and glad hand hippies ? Explain to terrorists that they are wrong to murder ?

How can we convince Hezbollah, Hamas, and all the other millions of muslims around the world that violence is not the way to world peace?

Did we impose our will on Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan?

The US, which is actively using military force to impose our will in three nations, is not in a position to make that argument.

America cant argue against the use of force given our broad use of force against radical Muslim terrorist.