you know, you definitely get this sort of push-pull type of feeling. >> and jim miklaszewski, you've presidents, you've covered pentagons. here was candidate obama on this program interviewed by tim russert, back in 2006. listen to this. >> and what would in your mind, define a great president? >> obviously most of the time it seems that the president has maybe 10% of his agenda set by himself and 90% of it set by circumstances. >> we're living firmly in the 90%. and leadership tests of how he'll be defined very much by these tests. >> and to follow up on what helene said, both secretary gates at the pentagon and admiral mike mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs, gave president obama an escape hatch when it came to libya. two weeks ago, secretary gates warned that to launch any kind of air strikes impose a no-fly zone, had unintended consequences of a second and third order. david, we haven't even seen the first order consequences yet. that probably lie ahead. >> general hayden, what are your concerns and your thoughts right now as you're watching this unfold? >> i think what the

pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski, ha lean cooper, former director of the cia, general michael hayden, and president of the counsel of general michael hayden, and president of the counsel of foreign relations, richard haas. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> good morning. libyan leader moammar gadhafi took to the airwaves this morning vowing to stay in fight and calling the air strikes tantamount to terrorism. anti-aircraft painted the skies after operation odyssey dawn was launched to prop up rebel forces. earlier in the day, the french took the lead as their war planes patrolled the skies over libya and struck pro-gadhafi tanks. u.s. and british forces followed by launching a volley of more than 100 cruise miss ells and heavy bombing. the u.s. currently has at least 11 naval vessels in the mediterranean in addition to surveillance aircraft. all of this in preparation to impose a u.n.-sanctioned no-fly zone, the largest military intervention since the invasion of iraq in 2003, eight years to the day. i want to go right to nbc's chief foreign affairs corresponden

we want to begin at the pentagon with our pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski. jim, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. u.s. warplanes and coalition aircraft are in the air again tonight over libya, on the prowl for targets of opportunity. libyan anti-aircraft fire lit up the skies over tripoli tonight. another futile attempt to defend against overwhelming american attacks. a dozen more cruise missiles pounded libyan military targets as u.s. marine harrier jets destroyed a convoy of armored vehicles south of benghazi. in chile today, president obama said the coalition assault was absolutely necessary to prevent the massacre of defenseless libyans by moammar gadhafi. >> a leader who has lost his legitimacy decides to turn his military on his own people. we can't simply stand by with empty words. >> reporter: in two days of intensive bombing, u.s. and coalition forces have wiped out most of libya's air defenses and safely established a no-fly zone. but american warplanes also turned their guns on libyan ground forces, destroying tanks and armored vehicl

we begin tonight with jim miklaszewski. jim? >> reporter: lester, there's only been one full day of american and coalition air strikes against libya, but senior u.s. military officials are already declaring the no-fly zone a success. but there could still be plenty of fighting ahead for the u.s. military. for the second straight night, u.s. and british tomahawk cruise missiles blasted libyan air defense sites. three american b-2 stealth bombers flew from whiteman air force base in missouri more than 36 hours to libya and back to destroy libyan fighter aircraft bunkered next to a civilian air strip. and on nbc's "meet the press," joint chiefs chairman admiral mike mullen declared that moammar gadhafi's air force has been grounded. >> he hasn't had had any aircraft or helicopters flying the last couple days, so effectively that no-fly zone has been put in place. >> reporter: but a trail of burned out tanks, trucks and cars provided dramatic evidence that the u.s. military operation has escalated well beyond the no-fly zone. for th

we begin tonight with our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. jim, good evening? >> reporter: good evening, brian. for american air crews, this is about as tense as it gets. and it took more than 12 hours to safely recover both of the downed airmen. what's left of the american fighter jet was scattered across the libyan desert. the air force f-15 was on a bombing mission when it developed engine trouble. the two americans ejected as the plane went down. two marine harrier jets soon located the downed pilot not far from the wreckage, and he was flown to safety. in the process, marine officials say one of the jets dropped two bombs. another may have strafed the area with gunfire. six civilians were wounded but surprisingly bore no grudge against the americans. >> translator: if they just stopped shooting, we would have escorted the pilots to safety, this man said. we were trying to have a celebration for him. >> reporter: it took another 12 hours to locate and rescue the second crewmember. local farmers greeted him with open arms. >> the first man who greeted him wa

want to begin with jim miklaszewski who is following the deployment of u.s.forces this morning from washington. good morning. >> reporter: after that initial assault by u.s. cruise missiles is against moammar gadhafi's air defense systems, the u.s. military threw an awful lot of additional firepower as those libyan forces overnight in the latest attacks. we're told f-15s and f-16 s out of sicily attacked u.s. or attacked libyan ground forces for the first time in and around benghazi and when asked how that relateses to the no-fly zone, u.s. military officials justified that by saying any movement of libyan troops presents potential threat toe innocent civilians there in libya. in addition, as you mentioned, those these b-2 stealth bombers flew all the way from whiteman air force base in missouri to drop 40 bombs on the air strips, the military air strips there in libya. and we're now told that even harrier jets off the amphibious carrier kearsarge also participated in some of those air strikes that occurred overnight. it's clear now that the u.s. military and

jim miklaszewski has the story. jim, what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning. those airmen were flying east of benghazi when their f-15 fighter jet experienced mechanical difficulty. despite the crew's attempts to save the aircraft, they were forced to punch out and the f-15 fighter jet crashed into the desert. now, once the air with their chutes were deployed, the two airmen became widely separated. one of the airmen, when he landed, was in immediate contact with search and rescue helicopters. and he was quickly plucked from the ground and taken to safety. the other airman somehow fell into a group of armed rebels. and while he was in no danger apparently, he was asked to separate himself from those armed rebels because the helicopter crews quite frankly thought it was too dangerous to fly directly into a group of armed men. he, too, was eventually picked up and taken to safety. the second airman suffered minor injuries suffered when he punched out of that airplane at some high altitude. according to military officials, this pretty much went by the book, and i

>> jim miklaszewski, thanks. nbc's jim maceda is in tripoli. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, ann. well, we find ourselves here close to but not actually in a targeted area. but still the last two nights have seen wave upon wave of anti-aircraft fire with trace-around flying really in every direction, mostly defensive fire which suggests that libya's targeting capabilities are very limited. now, last night we lived what jim was describing from the inside. we felt an explosion for the first time here. clearly from an air strike. we saw smoke coming from the general direction of gadhafi's compound. we have been told gadhafi was not a target. but when our government minders invited all journalists to go to the compound, some of us hesitated. we were concerned and sensitive about becoming human shields. those who did go were shown evidence that there had been an air strike, shrapnel damage and pieces of what could have been a cruise missile with serial numbers on it. gadhafi was not near the building, however, part of the vast compou

. >> jim miklaszewski, thank you so much for your reporting this morning on this story. >>> a pakistani court today rejected cia contractor raymond davis's claim of diplomatic immunity. davis is charged with murdering two men as they approached his car on motorbikes. he says he acted in self-defense. >>> trish regan is watching the markets. hi, trish. good morning. >> it all comes down to oil and jobs again today. oil is really being closely watched because, as you know, as we saw all this violence in the middle east it's having a big affect on prices back here and, therefore, at the gas pumps. in fact, wednesday's session, oil closed above $100 a barrel for the first time since september 30th, 2008. and as oil soars, guess what? gold soars, too. people are looking for safe havens. $1,437 an ounce is what gold is now going for. so maybe your jewelry is worth something. meantime, tomorrow's report on jobs, that's a biggy. economists are hoping for nearly 200,000 jobs to be added to this economy. >> all right. that's a positive note. thanks so much, trish regan, this morning. >>> here's s