Testifying Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, top US military commander Admiral Michael Mullen insisted that the Libyan military was not nearing a “breaking point,” and that regime change would be “welcomed,” but is not the goal of the Libyan War.

Mullen said that the strikes had “degraded” the Libyan military significantly, but seemed to suggest that the goal wasn’t to crush them on the rebels’ behalf.

At the same time, it seems the number of US strikes was artificially low in recent days. Mullen said that the weather was so unseasonable for warfighting that the planes couldn’t effectively launch attacks, and seemed to suggest that the strikes will pick up again once the weather clears up.