President Obama leaves questions unanswered

But without clear and concise guidelines that define the mission and an exit strategy, why did the United States take the lead in military actions there?

By following a United Nations resolution instead of requesting the approval and support of Congress as President Bush did prior to intervening in Afghanistan and Iraq, President Obama demonstrated a failure to not include the people who were elected to represent Americans in decisions affecting us all as a nation.

President Obama has acknowledged in his speech that he embraced the removal of Gadhafi from power as his goal but said that regime change was not part of the military mission. So will America just hope that Gadhafi will surrender? 

What if Gadhafi ends up staying in power with some degree of control over Libya, what happens then? And though the president said that he would not send American ground combat troops into Libya, we learned just recently that he has secretly ordered the CIA into Libya to access and aid the rebels.

I remain extremely concerned about the path President Obama has put our nation on with regard to Libya without knowing the end results we want to achieve. There are so many unanswered questions still on the table in what our strategy is and what will happen if and when Gadhafi steps down.

As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I attended the hearing on Thursday with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen to hear more about the Libyan action known as Operation Odyssey Dawn. Secretary Gates made one thing crystal clear. He said he does not want to have United States troops on the ground in Libya now or after the potential fall of the Gadhafi regime.

I emphatically agree. Honoring the tremendous patriotism, sacrifice and valor that our brave men and women in uniform have so selfishly demonstrated since 9/11, we must have clear and definitive goals and an exit strategy in any military action going forward starting with Libya.

I think President Obama still has a lot of questions to answer when it comes to the level of involvement our country will have in Libya as we move forward. There are too many mixed messages on this subject. The Libya action has so far cost up to $1 billion by some estimates.

The United States cannot afford to engage in another war or try to solve another country’s problems until we have come to an agreement on what the next steps are in leading to the outcome we want in this affair.