During his round of broadcast network interviews following his address to the nation on Monday, President Obama has recently been making bold predictions about the civil war that has engulfed the regime of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.  Using phrases like Qaddafi's "days are numbered" and the "noose has tightened," Obama is raising expectations of both the public in the US as well as around the world.  However, in a real way, the President may be putting himself in a bind-- much in the same way as when President George W. Bush landed on the runway of an aircraft carrier during the Iraq war against the backdrop of the now infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner.

By several media accounts, the Libyan rebels will probably not be able to drive to decisively defeat Qaddafi's military out in the open field of battle without the help of close American, or coalition, airpower and perhaps even more.  In fact, in the past day or so, Qaddafi's forces have taken back much of the ground-- despite conflicting reports, probably as far back as Ajdabiya-- that the rebels gained as a result of the attacks by American cruise missiles and the imposition of a no-fly zone.  If anything, the Libyan civil war looks like it may very well be a conflict that is long and drawn-out rather than they way the President is charactizing it.

The American public, as the news media more than happily reinforced to its readers and viewers during the Bush years, punished Bush in the polls after it became clear that America's involvement in Iraq would last much longer than Bush was telling Americans.  As a case in point, Obama should be very wary of using the kind of rhetoric that he is using now.  Even if his administration decides to arm the rebels, the anti-government forces are so undisciplined and untrained that there may very well be a see-sawing swing of territorial gains and losses that have so far characterized the war, and a victory by the rebels would be far from certain.

As much as Obama liked to criticize-- and should even be said, still likes to criticize-- his precessor, he should be wise to take the lessons that President Bush learned the hard way.