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Summary The White House pushed back against pressure from some US lawmakers for more muscular intervention in Libya on Monday, saying it first wanted to figure out what the various military options would achieve.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that it would be premature to send a bunch of weapons to a post office box in eastern Libya. We need to not get ahead of ourselves in terms of the options we are pursuing, he added. The Obama administration is facing sharp criticism, especially from some Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators, for its cautious approach to the turmoil in Libya, but it has signaled it will not be rushed into making any hasty decisions that could suck the US military into a new war and fuel anti-American sentiment in the region.The US officials are still trying to identify the main actors within the opposition groups fighting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafis security forces. The aims of these groups are unclear and it is far from certain that they would welcome foreign military intervention, the officials say. Carney also said that no option has been removed from the table, but that ground troops are not sort of top of the list at this point. A no-fly zone, an idea popular with US lawmakers, is being actively discussed within NATO, while possibly arming the rebels is also in the mix, he said.
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