Obama: US Ready to ‘Act Rapidly’ Against Libya

Military to Move Refugees Away From Tunisia

by | Mar 3, 2011

In some of his most specific comments yet, Barack Obama insisted that the deployment of a growing number of US forces around the Libyan border was to allow the US to ‘act rapidly’ if he decided to launch an attack.

Obama also said that the military aircraft deployed to the region would be used to move refugees around, with the US forces being used to transfer Egyptian refugees who fled into Tunisia back to Egypt.

Though the early threats to invade have been somewhat backed off of, the continued deployment of US military forces to the area has increased concerns that a full on invasion is in the offing.

And while Gadhafi has made some vague threats around a possible US invasion, the real concern is coming from opposition figures, who are concerned that their rebellion, which has netted nearly the entire country, would be hijacked by a US military occupation.

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.

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