President Obama on Monday prepared to make his case to the nation about why he ordered U.S. forces to Libya in an address that gives him an opportunity to answer mounting questions about how long the conflict could last and under what conditions the United States would depart.

A senior administration official told Fox News the speech will effectively serve two purposes -- to outline the mission going forward and explain "how our efforts in Libya have advanced our interests and averted a catastrophe."

Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough said later that an upcoming conference in London on Libya will also give allies an opportunity to work jointly on an end vision for the Arab nation...

President Obama said Friday that the United States will offer "whatever assistance is needed" to help Japan recover from the earthquake and tsunami that struck the country, calling the crisis a "heartbreaking" and "potentially catastrophic disaster."

He addressed the tsunami at a press conference in Washington, D.C., as the U.S. military dispatched ships and other resources to the Pacific. Japan's government made a formal request for assistance Friday morning.

"We're going to stand with them as they recover and rebuild from this tragedy," Obama said...

The Pentagon will announce Friday a three-month timeline for preparing the military to allow gay members to serve openly, Fox News has learned.

Cliff Stanley, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness and Gen. James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are expected to lay out a plan that gives the military services roughly three months to train their forces on the new law that allows gays to serve openly in the military, a U.S. official tells Fox News.

The briefers will outline major changes needed in order for the military to smoothly move away from norms associated with the repeal of the Clinton-era legislation commonly known as "don't ask don't tell”...

Vice President Biden predicted Friday the evolution in thinking that will permit gays to soon serve openly in the military eventually will bring about a U.S. consensus for same-sex marriage.

Changes in attitudes by military leaders, those in the service and the public allowed the repeal by Congress of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Biden noted in a nationally broadcast interview on Christmas eve.

"I think the country's evolving," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America.:" And I think you're going to see, you know, the next effort is probably going to be to deal with so-called DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). He said he agreed with President Barak Obama that his position in gay marriage is "evolving"...

(CNSNews.com) - Wasting no time to raise funds, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is selling a photo of President Obama signing the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The legislation eventually will end the military's ban on openly homosexual troops.

"Ending this discriminatory policy is truly a monumental achievement," the DSCC wrote just hours after Obama signed the bill before a large and appreciative audience on Wednesday.

Supporters of the legislation are urged to "celebrate the repeal" by purchasing an unframed print for $25 or a "beautiful framed version" for $50...

The pro-life movement has received a significant legislative victory with today’s vote in the Senate passing a Department of Defense funding bill without a change in the policy prohibiting military base abortions.

Earlier this month, the Senate turned back a second attempt by pro-abortion Democrats to stop a Republican filibuster against a Defense Department funding measure that would also allow abortions at military base hospitals.

Subsequently, the House passed a bill, H.R. 6523, that leaves current pro-life law in place and does not contain an amendment offered in the Senate by Senator Roland Burris which would permit the performance of abortions in both domestic and overseas military facilities...

A Christian attorney and constitutional law expert says the new Congress must derail the implementation of the law recently passed by the lame-duck Congress that is set to lift the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military.

Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, decides that opportunistic senators put the agenda of political interest groups above their support for the American men and women in uniform. So his organization is planning to team up with the 40-million-member Freedom Federation to push for the new Congress to overturn the actions of the president and the radical Congress that was rejected by the people in November's midterm elections...

Washington (AP) - Fulfilling a campaign pledge, cheering his party's downcast liberals and striking a blow for what he sees as basic human rights, President Barack Obama is signing a landmark law Wednesday that tells America's armed services to let homosexuals serve openly for the first time.

So many gay rights and Democratic activists were expected at the signing ceremony that the White House booked a large auditorium at the Interior Department.

"This day has come!" said an elated Mike Almy, an Air Force major discharged four years ago when his sexual orientation became known. "'Don't ask, don't tell' is over, and you no longer have to sacrifice your integrity"...

WASHINGTON -- The debate over gays in the military has been settled with a historic decision to allow them to serve openly, but big questions lie ahead about how and when the change will take place, how troops will accept it and whether it will hamper the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan and Iraq.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law this week the legislation that passed the Senate on Saturday, an act some believe will carry social implications as profound as President Harry S. Truman's 1948 executive order on racial equality in the military.

The new law probably won't go into practice for months. Obama and his top advisers must first certify that repealing the 1993 ban on gays serving openly will not damage U.S. troops' ability to fight. That ban, known as "don't ask, don't tell," has allowed gays to serve, but only if they kept quiet about their sexual orientation...

A conservative military watchdog is pleased this session of Congress was unable to repeal the law that bans homosexuals from legally serving in the military, despite a full-court press from President Obama and Democratic leaders.

During a recent address to sailors on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, Defense Secretary Robert Gates predicted that the 1993 law that bans homosexuals from serving in the armed forces will be around for a while longer. He shared he was "not particularly optimistic" that Congress would overturn the policy soon, even though he wishes it would.

"Frankly, I'm appalled at his attitude toward this whole thing," laments Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness (CMR). "He has not served the troops well, first by assuming that Congress would repeal the law -- he was wrong about that. He certainly has yet to make a single positive argument for repealing that law"...