SPEECH

Obama: U.S. Action in Libya ‘Limited’

Said intervention to prevent massacre was in U.S. interests.

In the run-up to his big speech Monday night, President Obama tried Monday afternoon to answer the country’s swirling questions about U.S. involvement in Libya, insisting that the engagement would be limited. Initial military intervention, the president has said, does not commit the U.S. to any further action against Gaddafi. But Obama stressed earlier Monday the moral imperative of preventing the impending massacre in Benghazi that coalition missiles thwarted in the first days of the intervention. "I firmly believe that when innocent people are being brutalized; when someone like Gaddafi threatens a bloodbath that could destabilize an entire region, and when the international community is prepared to come together to save many thousands of lives—then it's in our national interest to act," Obama said. His speech will not outline future engagement or specify a time frame, but other administration advisers have stressed that the U.S. is handing over the mission to NATO.