Republican Congressman and retired Army veteran Allen West (R-Fla.) said he "cannot understand" America’s involvement in Libya and that U.S. military is being used as a "rent-a-force" in the region.
"For every decision there are consequences and we have to sometimes analyze what could be those consequences. Just the same with operations in Libya – I cannot understand it. I don’t know what the goal and objective are," West said in an address at the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday.
"No one can clearly tell me who these rebels or who the rebel leaders are – where they come from; what do they seek to have; what are they going to bring to the table different than Moammar Gadhafi. Moammar Gadhafi’s a bad guy, there’s no doubt about it but there are means by which you can contain him, instead of committing our Air Force and our Navy to be kind of like a ‘rent-a- force’ to them."
President Obama recently called the U.S. military operations in Libya, which began 71 days ago, a "slow, steady process" where the U.S. and its allies attempt to "wear down the regime forces and change the political calculations of the Gadhafi regime to the point where they finally realize that they're not going to control this country."
