PUNDIT PREP - THE WHITE HOUSE RESPONDS: "1) The lead seems to breeze past this statement 'having largely succeeded in stopping a rout of Libya's rebels,' with no acknowledgement that this is the core goal of the mission and the [Security Council resolution]. 2) The story asserts that 'Only on Thursday, the sixth day of air and missile strikes' did we give command of the [no-fly zone] to NATO. What is the standard you're comparing this effort to that leads you to believe 6 days is slow? Moreover, what should have happened that hasn't during those six days that impacted our core objective? 3) You assert that the coalition is fraying, but the trajectory is nothing but positive. First they agreed on AWACS. Then they agreed on implementing the arms embargo. Now they've agreed on giving C2 of the no fly zone to NATO. And they've tasked the planning to put civilian protection under NATO C2 as well. On top of that, you saw the UAE commit 6 F-16s and 6 Mirages today. How is that fraying?

"The international community has responded to Qaddafi's actions with unprecedented speed. It took two years of fighting in the former Yugoslavia before the UNSC passed a resolution establishing an [International Criminal Court] referral. It took 3 months for an arms embargo, and more than a year for an asset freeze and two years for a travel ban. Those things happened in 9 days in Libya. NATO began Operation Deliberate Force-the air campaign against Serb military forces, who had attacked civilians in UN Safe Areas in Bosnia-in August 1995, more than four years after the first bombing by Yugoslav Air Force against civilian targets in Croatia, and more than three years after the start of attacks against civilians in Bosnia.

"In March 1999, NATO began Operation Allied Force, an air campaign against Yugoslav ground forces in Kosovo and strategic targets in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This was more than a year after Serbian police began a series of violent raids in the Drenica region of Kosovo. Operation Odyssey Dawn commenced on March 19, two days after UNSCR 1973 was adopted by the Security Council, and 31 days after beginning of the Libyan peoples' uprising against Gaddafi. Somehow we have lost a needed sense of historical perspective in this discussion. Things that took years are taking days and weeks. Unprecedented support from Arab states is treated as cursory. And the prevention of a mass slaughter of Libyan people is written about as if it were not the core goal of the effort, but rather an aside."