You can read the speech here. The president is very optimistic that NATO will take control of the R2P (Responsibility to Protect) part of the mission very soon. This is wishful thinking on his part. There are huge obstacles - namely, Turkey and Germany - to NATO continuing to protect the rebel advance on Gaddafi.

This was never mentioned in Obama's speech - our unstated assistance to the anti-Gaddafi forces who are comprised at least partly of al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood fighters who were killing Americans recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. This little factoid never made it out over the airwaves - surprised, huh?

The AP has done a fact check on the speech. It's not bad, but incomplete. They point out something rather obvious but not talked about much; Obama wants to hand the operation off to NATO - an organization dominated politically and militarily by the US.

And this brings us to more wishful thinking by Obama. Does he really believe that just because NATO will be in nominal control that the world won't see the US as still being in charge of the operation? And if this thing goes south, who does he think the world will blame? France?

Allowing the UN to "borrow" the US military sets a very bad precedent. Abdicating American responsibility for the outcome might make liberals feel good but it's a chimera; it won't happen and the world will not let us forget that.