Obama’s Monday Mission: Sell Americans on Libyan War

Officials Confirm War Could Last Months

President Obama plans a Monday evening address with an increasingly common goal, to sell the American public on an increasingly unpopular war. But while those previous speeches were about the decade-long Afghan War, the Monday speech will be about the new war in Libya.

Just over a week after it began, President Obama’s newest war is facing growing questions, particularly about the lack of debate before it started and the lack of any concrete end-game strategy. Officials conceded on the Sunday talk show circuit that the war could last “months.”

And even months might be a generous assessment, with officials reluctant to define any goals or exit conditions. The no-fly zone is, to quote Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, open-ended. That means this war, like the others the Obama Administration is fighting, has no real ending planned out.

President Obama’s effort to sell the American public on support for a third major war will be complicated by admissions from top officials that the new war isn’t even a vital American interest in their eyes.

The speech will set the stage not just for a battle for public opinion about the war, but for Congressional hearings into the war, which was announced shortly after Congress went into recess, and was never debated.

Author: Jason Ditz

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.