President Obama, Libya, and our inept Congress
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 6/2/11 @ 5:57 pm - Filed Under Featured, National Politics
The President of the United States does NOT have the power to declare war. War is declared by Congress. Many recent Presidents have exceeded their constitutional authority. These Presidents have been Republicans as well as Democrats. Congress has for some reason ceded its authority to the President on several occasions.
I put up a post about this back on May 1st, 2011. A drive by commenter who was unwilling to leave his or her real name posted three inane and relatively ignorant comments on the original post. He or she used the name “You should change the name of FWP.” Basically they thought my post was bombastic and should be ignored because since other previous President have exceeded their constitutional authority therefore it is OK that President Obama (The great Nobel Peace Prize winner) has exceeded it as well.
Two wrongs do not make a right. I am sick and tired of people ignoring the Constitution. I do not feel that the President has the right to commit the forces of the United States in a foreign conflict for 60 days or more without the approval of Congress. In fact unless there is an imminent threat I do not feel the President should commit our armed forces to any foreign conflict for even one day without the express approval of Congress.
This issue is not about whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. It is about right and wrong.
Luckily Congress is finally starting to wake up from its normal ignorant daze and realize that President Obama has exceeded his Constitutional Authority by committing troops to a conflict in Libya in which the United States has already admitted it does NOT have impelling strategic interests…
Today in the House of Representatives (Please read the entire article at The Hill) a measure was narrowly defeated (The Sherman Amendment) that would have “prevented DHS from using funds in any way that violates the War Powers Act.” Note this amendment was proposed by a Democrat named Brad Sherman. The actual vote against the amendment was defeated 213 votes to 208. This vote did not split along party lines at all. In fact of the Republicans 112 voted the right way in favor of the amendment and 125 voted the wrong way. On the Democratic side 96 Democrats voted the right way in favor of the amendment and then 88 Democrats voted the wrong way…
So the House came very close to passing this amendment. The roll call vote has not been posted; however, I will look at it in the next couple of days and let you know how our members of Congress voted. I would guess that Stutzman and Pence would have voted the right way (in favor of) this amendment and that Pelosi and Cantor voted the wrong way (against it).
Yesterday in the House the Republican leadership pulled a resolution and did not allow a vote on it from Democrat Dennis Kucinich. This was a clean attempt to end the involvement of the US military in the civil war raging in Libya. Supposedly the Republican leadership pulled it because they thought it well might pass! You can read more about this here.
I hope that Dennis Kucinich succeeds in ending our involvement in Libya. President Obama promised we would be involved for days and not weeks. We are just under ten weeks and counting…
Mike Sylvester
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4 Responses to “President Obama, Libya, and our inept Congress”
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So the bill basically says “this department of government can’t do things that it knows to be unconstitutional”… and more than half of the congress says “that seems too extreme for my liking.”
In the History of our country, we have only declared war 5 times with congressional approval. There have been 12 military engagements with congressional approval. Since 1980 alone, there have been 75 military actions without conressional approval.
The Libyan conflict is covered under UN Resolution 1973. Congress long ago approved treaties with the UN & NATO as covered in resolution 1973. The US along with 17 other nations are maintaining a no-fly zone. This would be the similar to the Iraqi no fly zone as part of a UN resolution after desert Storm.
The biggest blunder in US military history (Iraqi Freedom) came with congressional approval (Excluding the President). So what dictates the propaganda to start a war? The Vietnam War started with Eisenhower,s refusal to recognize a treaty after it was apparent the communists would win the elections. Does anybody remember the reason we invaded Iraq? Was Hussien any worse then a dozen other whacked out leaders I can think of.
If you really want to whine about something, then lets get out of Afghanistan,we are not going to nation build the people, we got Bin Ladin, it,s time to come home.
Ranger Bob,
The fact that the UN authorizes a no-fly zone has NOTHING to do with the United States depolying its military forces. Our military forces are not under the control of the UN.
Further how does a no-fly zone involve bombing military targets with the intent of regime change. The current operation in Libya involves 17 countries taking a side in a civil war.
I am not whining about anything Ranger Bob. I want to bring our troops home from both Iraq and Afghanistan as well… You read this blog and you know that I want to bring our troops home…
Mike
[...] I have written a couple of previous posts about President Obama and his current “misadventures” in Libya. You can read them here and here. [...]