The prominent role played by the United States in carrying out and commanding the initial coalition attacks on Libya appeared to extend far beyond President Barack Obama’s description of a narrow mission in which U.S. forces would play only a supporting part.
Senior U.S. military officials continued Sunday to describe the U.S. involvement as “limited” in extent and duration. They emphasized plans to relinquish command and control responsibilities to coalition partners within days. They repeated Obama’s pledge that no U.S. ground troops would be deployed.
But administration officials and military leaders came under a barrage of questions — raised by members of Congress, outside experts and reporters — about the parameters of U.S. participation and the operation’s goals, especially if Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy does not capitulate.
“There have been lots of options which have been discussed, but I think it’s very uncertain how this ends,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Mullen, who appeared on five television talk shows, was pressed repeatedly to define the mission and its objectives.
“I think circumstances will drive where this goes in the future,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Could it end with Khadafy remaining in power?
“That’s certainly, potentially, one outcome,” Mullen said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” using language he repeated in other interviews. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re not going to have airplanes over Libya in three or four days.”
In a briefing for reporters traveling with Obama in South America, National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon said that command would be transferred, possibly to NATO, in “days, not weeks,” and described the goal of the first phase of the mission as “crystal clear.”
“The focus right now was on a direct threat to citizens” of Libya, he said, “in response to requests” from Arab governments and under last week’s U.N. resolution authorizing member states to take “all necessary measures” to protect civilians by going after Libya’s air defenses and capabilities, allowing French and British planes to then establish a no-fly zone over Libya.
“This is a limited-in-scope-duration-and-task operation,” Donilon said of the U.S. role. U.S. forces will quickly move into the background, he said, providing jamming of Libyan government communications, surveillance and intelligence, and refueling for coalition aircraft.
Donilon and Mullen stressed that while Obama has called for Khadafy to step down, unseating him is not an objective of the military operation.
Lawmakers commenting on the weekend’s events were divided. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said that Obama should seek a declaration of war from Congress and questioned who would emerge in control of Libya.
“We really have not discovered who it is in Libya that we are trying to support,” Lugar said on “Face the Nation.” “Obviously, the people that are against Khadafy, but who?”
Donilon responded that the administration had made direct contact Sunday with leaders of the Libyan National Transitional Council, the opposition governing body in Benghazi. The opposition leaders said that “actions we have taken have prevented catastrophe there,” he said.
Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., on “Meet the Press,” said Obama had allayed early concerns about possible “mission creep.” Some analysts recalled that earlier administrations, in earlier operations in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, had also assured Americans that campaigns would be short.
“Low-balling expectations is probably penny- wise and pound-foolish,” said Thomas Donnelly, director of the Center for Defense Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
