By Nicole Houck, Contributing Writer

On the campaign trail, Senator Pat Toomey and his opponent Joe Sestak couldn’t have held more opposite views. Lately however, they’ve both sounded fairly similar in their criticism of Obama’s response to the situation in Libya.

According to the Post-Gazette,  Toomey has been direct in his criticism about President Obama’s decision to launch air strikes against Libya. Toomey attributed his reservations to an assertion that the Obama administration did not effectively explain the mission. Toomey said that he believed the reasoning behind the mission was unclear. He asserted that he does not defend Moammar Gadhafi, but Gadhafi is “not the only despicable character” in the world. Toomey said he was unclear about what US interests are being served or protected by targeting Libya.

“I’m not prepared to advocate U.S. military force in Libya right now. There are very many unanswered questions about what would the purpose be, when would we leave, what would we measure as a success, what would we do if and when Americans start being killed. Innocent civilians inevitably become casualties. I think there are too many unanswered questions right now for us to commit forces to Libya,” Toomey said in a television interview.
Sestak has expressed similar sentiments, questioning whether the public understands the objectives of the mission fully.

“Are the costs worth our interest? Do we understand the risk we’re assuming?” Sestak questioned.

“You know what? After two wars, almost a decade in each, I think it would have been worth the cancellation of the trip. At such a moment in time, [Obama] should have been laying it out on a consistent basis for the public. What is going to happen, what the end-games are, what’s the risk environment we’re entering,” said Sestak.