미
국방장관 로버트 게이츠는 2011년 3월 1일 만장일치가 필요하기 때문에 나토군을 활용한 군사작전은 고려하고 있지 않지만 소개작전과 인도적
구호를 위해 두척의 미군 군함과 해병대 400명을 리비아 근해로 보냈다고 발언. (폭스는 해병 1200명 보도).
또한 게이츠는
리비아의 미군은 이라크와 아프간의 미군을 배치할 것이라고 발언했다는 보도. 시카고 트리뷴
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sc-dc-0302-gates-libya-20110301,0,1323291.story
U.S. sending Navy ships, Marines for humanitarian efforts in Libya
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he’s
sending two warships and 400 Marines to the region to aid in any
‘emergency evacuations and also for humanitarian relief,’ but he urges
caution on any military role in Libya.
The amphibious assault ship |
By David S. Cloud, Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Tuesday he was dispatching two warships and 400 Marines as a humanitarian response to the crisis in Libya, but he cautioned that U.S. military intervention should be carefully considered.
“The kinds of options that have been talked about in the press and
elsewhere also have their own consequences,” Gates said on Tuesday,
referring to calls for a no-fly zone and other possible steps to halt
attacks by Moammar Kadafi‘s forces on rebels. “They need to be considered very carefully.”
Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said at a Pentagon news briefing that the Defense Department was examining a wide range of military options but said no decision had been made on executing any of them.
U.S. officials say that any U.S. role in Libya is likely to be part of a
multinational coalition and confined, at least for the moment, to
assistance in humanitarian or evacuation operations.
“All of the options beyond the
humanitarian assistance and evacuation are complex,” Gates said.
Shifting U.S. forces to deal with Libya could affect U.S. combat
operations in Afghanistan, he said.
“We also have to think about, frankly, the use of the U.S. military in another country in the Middle East,” he said.
Mullen said that a no-fly zone over Libya would be a “complex” operation
and he echoed statements by other military officers that it could
require a bombing campaign to eliminate the threat from Libya’s air
defense system.
“If we were to set it up,” Mullen said, “we’d have to work our way
through doing it in a safe manner and certainly not put ourselves in
jeopardy in doing that.”
Gates noted that there were divisions among members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization about what to do about the violence in Libya. Also, the United Nations has not authorized use of force by members in response to the crisis, he said.
The two Navy vessels dispatched by Gates, the Kearsarge and the Ponce,
“will be entering the Mediterranean shortly and will provide us a
capability for both emergency evacuations and also for humanitarian
relief,” Gates said. The 400 Marines are headed to the Kearsarge, an
amphibious assault ship, to replace some of the troops that left the
ship re-cently to go to Afghanistan.
