Story highlights Donald Trump has shifted positions -- again -- on how Libyan upheaval should have been handled

Many in the GOP plan to use Libya against Clinton

Washington (CNN) It should be an easy -- if simplistic -- attack line for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee: Hillary Clinton's support for military intervention in Libya left the country in chaos.

But it's not so straightforward for Donald Trump, who has reversed himself twice on the Obama administration's Libya strategy. And in the process, Trump is undermining what could be a powerful rhetorical weapon at a time when the 2016 campaign is dominated by his controversial statements on race that have been roundly criticized -- even by fellow Republicans.

Trump's latest Libya flip came on Sunday when he told CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday that he would have favored a "surgical shot" to kill Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi.

But at a Republican presidential debate in February, Trump said the dictator should have been left in power, arguing that, "We would be so much better off if Gaddafi would be in charge right now."

It was another 180-degree swivel from his statement in a 2011 video blog post in which he urged the Obama administration to "knock this guy out very quickly, very surgically."

Read More