I read a number of good articles today on both sides of the issues of should we have intervened in Libya and should President Obama have asked Congress for authorization before acting. Easily the strangest opinion though, came from a Democratic member of the U.S. House:
California Democratic Rep. Mike Honda, the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s Peace and Security Taskforce, said in a statement Monday that in launching missiles on Libya over the weekend, “not only did the Defense Department undermine a carefully constructed consensus, which included the Arab League, but it leveled a devastating blow to our legislative-executive checks and balances.”
“For the Pentagon to deliberately circumvent Congressional authority sets a new precedent for war powers authorization and sends the message to the world that American democracy is deeply dysfunctional,” Honda said.
What? I think it's debatable to say that Congress was circumvented here, but if it was there can be no debate about who did it. Clearly that would be President Obama. Is it so painful to directly criticize President Obama for his actions that Rep. Honda has to pretend that the Pentagon is acting on its own here? I don't think even the hardcore anti-war groups are going to buy that one.
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