Reps. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), Donna Edwards (Md.), Mike Capuano (Mass.), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Rob Andrews (N.J.), Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) “all strongly raised objections to the constitutionality of the president’s actions” during that call, said two Democratic lawmakers who took part.
Kucinich, who wanted to bring impeachment articles against both former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over Iraq — only to be blocked by his own leadership — asked why the U.S. missile strikes aren’t impeachable offenses.
Kucinich also questioned why Democratic leaders didn’t object when President Barack Obama told them of his plan for American participation in enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone during a White House Situation Room meeting on Friday, sources told POLITICOAnd liberals fumed that Congress hadn’t been formally consulted before the attack and expressed concern that it would lead to a third U.S. war in the Muslim world..
It's a tough pill to swallow when we agree with Waters, Capuano and Kucinich - but at least this group of democrats has the decency to call out the constitutionality of Obama's going to war with Libya without Congressional approval.
Obama has turned the three branches of government into a dictatorship. He has subverted the structure of the counsel of an appointed cabinet by simultaneously appointing his own 'czars' outside of the outside of our power structure. He believes he has the power to overturn SCOTUS, nullify law and now, he goes to war with another country - possibly starting World War III - without any respect for the powers, checks and balances of the Constitution of the United States.
If you want to implement a no-fly zone and fire missiles at another country, you need a declaration of war.
Folks, it's time to pull out our bell bottom pants, tie-dye shirts and love beads and start thinking about war protests and demands for impeachment in front of the White House.
We need a good short little ditty - three or four words that we can keep chanting and repeating in the public square. Maybe we can dig something up from the 60s.
5 comments:
For better or worse, our system runs on long-term custom and precedent as well as on written law. Our first encounter with Libya was in the so-called First Barbary War, one never formally declared by Congress, though the ruler of Tripoli did declare war on us in his customary way, by chopping down the flag pole in front of the U. S. legation. Congress did, however, give signs of support for Jefferson's policy of waging the war, including voting appropriations for conducting it. Nor was the second the Second Barbary War, this time under Madison against Algiers, ever formally declared by Congress, although supported by it once again.
There has, in fact, not been a Congressional declaration of war since 1941, when we declared war on the Japanese Empire after Pearl Harbor. The Korean "police action,"under Truman (1949) like what we are engaged in with Libya, was fought pursuant to a Security Council resolution on the international organization's behalf. As in this instance, our Nato allies took part with us. Our invasion of Lebanon under Eisenhower (1958) was undeclared and, thank God, very brief. Our Vietnam involvment, begun under Kennedy and continued under Johnson and Nixon (1961, 1965), was likewise undeclared, though the Gulf of Tonkin resolution gave Johnson so much scope to wage that war as to amount, perhaps, to a declaration. Subsequent American involvements in Grenada (Reagan), Panama, Kuwait and Iraq (both under G. H. W. Bush), Bosnia and Kosovo (under Clinton) Afghanistan and Iraq again (under G. W. Bush) have all been undeclared, but all have received the tacit approbation and fiscal support of a majority in Congress.
It is therefore clear that President Obama's action with regard to the situation in Libya is both precedented as far back as Jefferson and no different or worse than policies pursued by the majority of his recent predecessors (all since F. D. R. except for Ford and Carter, as far as I can see). Further, as in the case of Truman, he is acting as Commander-in-Chief under our treaty obligations as a signatory of the United Nations Charter, and, now that hostilities involving France, Great Britain, and Denmark have begun, in virtue of our NATO commitments. These treaties and the obligations they contain were formally ratified by Congress.
Although I sometimes agree with Kucinich and company on other matters, here, I think, they are allowing their principled opposition to war in general interfere with their judgment of the constitutional and legal situation, as well as with their compassion for the poor people of Libya, who have suffered much at the hands of the man Reagan called "a mad dog."
Excellent post.
Gaddhafi is a madman. But he is collaborating with madmen in many other countries and turning Christians and Jews over to them. I don't know enough about Libya to know what his interests are in going to war with them -- but whatever it is, he is up to no good.
The irony is his constant cackling about Bush's actions -- and here he is using the same power and discretion to attack in an undeclared war. The silence of the usual suspects in Catholic politics and theology - is deafening.
Sadly, many of us are now simply at the point where we are going to give him a good taste of his own medicine and kick up a poop storm around him.
If he's going to turn the country over to who protests the loudest, we can use his own duplicity to play the cards.
Just saying!
Where's the Change? or if you want the 60's "Give peace a chance"
1/2 the Country voted for this guy, I think they're all still celebrating St. Patty's Day & are just waking up to the fact we're at WAR...
Time to pull out the old Country Joe and The Fish albums!!!
Veronica
Anyone paying attention to what's happening in Syria now? Funny, not, I haven't heard a word on the TV news only the internet..trouble, trouble, everywhere and the US is smack in the middle....come on home wobama!
Imagine, a tent in a hotal room - give me a break!
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